PALM BEACH, Fla. — Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he owns “very little, but a few” bitcoins, although he continues to track the asset closely as part of a broader interest in how technology is reshaping finance.
“I’m an observer of bitcoin,” Solomon said Wednesday at the World Liberty Forum, saying he’s still trying to understand how it’s evolving.
While Goldman Sachs has taken a cautious approach to digital assets, the firm’s management views crypto as part of a longer-term shift in financial infrastructure, Solomon noted.
He rejected the idea that traditional banks and crypto companies are engaged in a zero-sum struggle. “It’s a system, it’s our system,” he said. “We have to do it the right way…and there will be disagreements and that’s OK.”
Solomon said the evolution of markets is shaped by large-scale technology platforms and tokenization will play a central role.
“The evolution of these platforms… has a clear impact,” he said. “Tokenization…I think is super important.”
While other banking giants such as JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have delved deeper into the digital assets space, Goldman Sachs’ involvement has been limited so far. The main reason, according to Solomon, is regulation.
“Until 10 minutes ago, the regulatory structure was extremely prohibitive,” he said jokingly, but suggested that as regulators begin to give companies more leeway to get “more involved” in the sector, Goldman might take another look.
Read more: Goldman Sachs sees regulation driving the next wave of institutional crypto adoption
“I have to do things right”
Salomon criticized the economic effects of excessive regulation.
“When you overload this system with excessive regulation, you start extracting capital,” he said. “This has absolutely happened in the last five years.”
He stressed the need for a good approach. “It has to be done thoughtfully and we have to get it right.”
Solomon previously said the banking giant was ramping up its internal research and discussions on crypto-adjacent technologies, including tokenization and prediction markets.
Read more: Goldman ‘spends a lot of time’ on crypto and market prediction efforts, says CEO Solomon
