Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein did not totally shun bitcoin in Wednesday’s CNBC interview from Davos, “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer said.
“I think it was important to parse what Lloyd said,” Cramer reflected. “[Blankfein] said customers who want to be involved with bitcoin … we will do business” on some level.
Blankfein denied reports that the investment bank was considering implementing a new trading desk for digital currencies. But he did say Goldman would be “clearing futures in bitcoin for some of our futures clients.”
“He did say, ‘If clients want to do something in the futures with crypto, they are there for them,'” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”
Goldman is one of the few major financial institutions offering some clients access to bitcoin futures that launched last month on two exchanges, the Cboe and the CME.
However, Cramer said that Blankfein appeared to make it clear that the bank wasn’t fully behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
“[Blankfein] did not want to say, ‘We are the crypto,'” Cramer said, because it may be “kryptonite.”
Also from Davos on Wednesday, J.P. Morgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon spoke briefly about bitcoin. “I’m not going to say anymore” about bitcoin, he said on CNBC, adding the media should “go back to something relevant.”
In September, the J.P. Morgan boss called bitcoin a “fraud,” touching off a firestorm among the crypto faithful. But in a later interview, he appeared to walk back that comment.
Cramer said, “Jamie might think it is irrelevant,” but pointed out that others on Wall Street are actively pursuing bitcoin and other cryptocurrency opportunities.
Cramer: Investors should read between the lines on Lloyd Blankfein's bitcoin comments