The Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs said in a Q&A published in the firm’s May 21 Global Macro Research newsletter that the growing cryptocurrency space, particularly related to “hot storage,” was “only one big fraud away from a very negative impact on the market.”
Addressing a question about risks to the industry, Mathew McDermott, who was expressing his own views and not those of the research team, also noted that “inconsistent regulatory actions” worldwide could “impede the further development of the crypto space.”
But McDermott, a nearly 16-year Goldman Sachs veteran, who was previously the firm’s Global Head of Cross Asset Financing, felt reassured that large crypto companies have been managing their “growth without any noticeable increase in fraudulent activity,” and encouraged about the industry. “It’s not often that we get to witness the emergence of a new asset class,” he said.