Goldman Sachs CEO speaks out again: Bitcoin is not my cup of tea

Ever since Bitcoin's price moved toward $10,000 and then experienced wild fluctuations, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein seems to have lost interest in it.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Blankfein called the cryptocurrency a "tool for committing fraud" and argued that a highly volatile asset like Bitcoin cannot be an effective currency or store of value.

An asset that can fluctuate 20% in a single day doesn't look like a currency, nor does it meet the conditions for a store of value. If it (Bitcoin) can work - become more mature, its trading model is more like a store of value, and it doesn't fluctuate 20% in a single day, and it has liquidity - then we will start to accept it.

This week, Bitcoin hit a new high of $11,441 on Bitfinex, but has since fallen below the psychological $10,000 mark. At press time, Bitcoin is trading around $9,700 (Bitfinex price) - down nearly $2,000 from its peak, but still up 20%.

Despite reports that Goldman Sachs is considering launching a large-scale cryptocurrency trading platform, Blankfein said that the bank does not have nor plans to have a “Bitcoin strategy” — even as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and even Nasdaq plan to launch Bitcoin futures contracts on their respective trading platforms.

The Goldman Sachs CEO said:

When did I have to develop a Bitcoin strategy? Not today.

Blankfein once said that although he is not optimistic about Bitcoin, he will keep an open mind and will not let his bias affect Goldman Sachs' entry into the field of cryptocurrency trading.

Now, however, Blankfein, like fellow bitcoin skeptic Michael Bloomberg, is more hostile toward cryptocurrencies than in the past.

He concluded:

Bitcoin is not my cup of tea. A lot of things I didn't like have worked out in the past 20 years, but I wouldn't speculate on whether it would work.