Goldman hunting for bargain crypto firms after FTX fiasco

STORY: The massive collapse of multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange FTX has grabbed headlines, spooked investors, and turned its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried from so-called wunderkind to pariah in just weeks.

But among the carnage, at least one major bank sees a buying opportunity: Goldman Sachs.

Reuters has learned exclusively that Goldman plans to spend tens of millions of dollars scooping up or taking stakes in beaten-down crypto companies.

With investor interest dampened, those companies can now come relatively cheap for those who are still crypto believers.

Which, apparently, Goldman Sachs is.

The bank’s head of digital assets told Reuters that Goldman is doing due diligence on a number of different crypto firms, adding that while FTX set back market sentiment, crypto’s underlying technology (quote) “continues to perform.”

But rival banks are more skeptical – especially as calls mount for heightened regulation.

At a Reuters Next conference on Dec. 1st, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said that while he didn’t think cryptocurrencies were going away he couldn’t (quote) “put an intrinsic value on it.”

And HSBC CEO Noel Quinn told a banking conference in London last week he has no plans to expand into crypto trading or investing for retail customers.

While the amount Goldman may spend is not large for the Wall Street giant - which earned $21.6 billion last year - it’s willingness to keep investing in the sector amid the shakeout shows it senses a long-term opportunity.