PALM BEACH, Fla. – Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he owns “very little, but some” bitcoin, though he continues to closely follow the asset as part of a broader interest in how the technology is reshaping finance.
“I’m a bitcoin watcher,” Solomon said at the World Freedom Forum on Wednesday, stating that he’s still trying to understand how it moves.
While Goldman Sachs has taken a cautious approach to digital assets, the firm’s leadership views cryptocurrencies as part of a long-term shift in financial infrastructure, Solomon noted.
He dismissed the idea that traditional banks and cryptocurrency companies are locked in a zero-sum fight. “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 okay.”
Solomon said the evolution of markets is being shaped by large-scale technology platforms and that tokenization will play a central role.
“The evolution of those platforms…has an obvious impact,” he said. “Tokenization… that I think is very important.”
While other banking giants like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have moved deeper into the digital asset space, Goldman Sachs’ participation has been limited so far. The main reason, according to Solomon, is regulation.
“Until 10 minutes ago, the regulatory structure was extremely prohibitive,” he joked, but suggested that as regulators begin to provide more freedom for companies to get “more involved” in the sector, Goldman might take another look.
Read more: Goldman Sachs sees regulation will drive next wave of institutional cryptocurrency adoption
‘I have to do it right’
Solomon criticized the economic effects of overregulation.
“When you load this system with excessive regulation, you start to extract capital,” he said. “That absolutely happened in the last five years.”
He emphasized taking the right approach. “We have to do it carefully and we have to do it well.”
Solomon previously said that the banking giant is intensifying its research and internal discussions on crypto-adjacent technologies, including tokenization and prediction markets.
Read More: Goldman Is “Devoting a Lot of Time” to Cryptocurrency and Prediction Markets Efforts, Says CEO Solomon
