Goldman Sachs, MCSI, and Coin Metrics are working on Datonomy, a new data feed that will allow investors to monitor trends in the crypto and DeFi markets. The major American bank is thus venturing a further step in the direction of digital blockchain technologies and is generally positive about the field.
Multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs is working with other companies to create a digital assets framework, according to a press release published on Nov. 3. The framework shows that Goldman Sachs has a particular interest in DeFi, though it focuses on other trends as well. The bank is working with MSCI as well as Coin Metrics on the framework called Datonomy, “a taxonomy of digital assets.”
Tracking the DeFi markets
The system will help investors keep a tab on the market as well as all its trends and niches. The press release specifically highlights decentralized finance (DeFi) and smart contract platforms as two examples. The tool should be accessible via a direct data subscription feed from the three entities. MSCI provides equity, fixed income, real estate indexes, and multi-asset portfolio analysis tools. Similarly, Coin Metrics is a crypto intelligence firm that provides various market and data solutions.
“We firmly believe a consistent and standardized framework for the classification of digital assets is essential to support investors’ ability to evaluate the market. We are leveraging our general experience of what’s worked in equities classification systems to offer an efficient investment tool helping clients to understand digital asset trends, identify investment opportunities, and measure the exposure of their portfolios."- Stéphane Mattatia, Managing director at MSCI
Goldman Sachs crypto volumes are growing
Goldman has also entered the crypto market, offering products like over-the-counter ether options and submitting a DeFi ETF application. The bank believes there is a future in bitcoin, much to the delight of the crypto community. It also revealed recently that its crypto trading is showing good numbers.
Andrei Kazantsev, head of the bank’s crypto trading, said the number of inbound client calls increased across the board. Kazantsev mentioned that hedge funds are no longer the only ones interested in crypto. He made the statement during the Crypto Assets conference in Frankfurt.
"Everyone is saying it’s a high volatility asset. How can it be investable for big asset managers? In reality, a lot of asset managers are already involved in very high volatility currencies. In FX we’ve seen many episodes of local volatility, for instance, in Turkey, in Russia, in Brazil, in many EM (emerging market) countries. So this is not something new" - Andrei Kazantsev, Head of crypto trading at Goldman Sachs
Institutional interest persists
More evidence of the increased institutional investment comes in the form of a Fidelity Investments survey. Fidelity released its fourth annual Fidelity Digital Assets study recently, and the results are clear. The most interesting results of the survey are the fact that crypto hedge funds and VC funds accounted for 87% of investments. Digital asset ownership in Asia is 69%, followed by Europe at 67% and then the U.S. at 42%.
There have been several institutional moves in recent weeks. Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings launched a new VC unit focused on crypto called Laser Venture Capital. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, billionaire Adrian Cheng’s C Ventures plans to raise $200 million for investment in the space.
