Goldman Sachs to offer bitcoin and digital assets for investment to its wealth management clients

Goldman Sachs, the top-tier finance group to enter the blockchain market, delivers shares in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to clients of its private wealth management group beginning in the second quarter.

Goldman's change, first reported by CNBC on Wednesday, comes just days after competitor Morgan Stanley began offering clients investments in the new asset class.

Mary Rich, the current digital-assets division head of Goldman's private wealth management segment told CNBC, the bank is considering offering a "full-spectrum" of those portfolios.

According to the report, the bank would eventually sell investments in cryptocurrencies and digital assets such as physical bitcoin, derivatives, and conventional investment vehicles.

Goldman is in the process of obtaining licenses from regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Department of Financial Services, the report stated.

Soon after the top-tier bank plans to provide links to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to private wealth clients, Bitcoin's price increased marginally Wednesday afternoon, reaching $59,000.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley revealed earlier this month that it would encourage wealthy clients to use three funds that allow Bitcoin ownership, possibly beginning from next month.

The renewed interest and rally in cryptocurrencies follow Tesla's February statement that it had purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin, assisting the cryptocurrency to hit fresh peaks and cross $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time.

Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) and Standard Chartered have announced that they will provide Bitcoin storage services. Apart from that Microstrategy directly invested in Bitcoin and JPMorgan has launched its own digital currency.

Earlier this week, Visa Inc. announced that its payments network would use the cryptocurrency backed by the US dollar to settle transactions.