American multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs is considering adding over-the-counter (OTC) Ether options to its suite of options, a month after launching OTC bitcoin options.
According to a Tuesday report by Bloomberg, Andrei Kazantsev, the bank’s global head of crypto trading disclosed the plan during a Goldman client webinar citing increased interest in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency from the bank’s customers. He further stated that the banking behemoth envisioned debuting cash-settled Ether options “in due course”.
Last month, Goldman Sachs started offering over-the-counter bitcoin options after contracting crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital and becoming the first major U.S. bank to offer such a product. Options are financial derivatives that are used by investors to boost yield or hedge risks while over-the-counter transactions are typically larger trades negotiated privately and off-chain.
Much of the attention around Ether has been on the long-anticipated transition from Proof Of Work to Proof Of Stake or “the merge”. This upgrade is widely perceived as the ultimate catalyst for ether’s price prompting investors to fiercely request the introduction of Ethereum based products from their banks and firms.