The recent surge in cryptocurrency prices has been driven primarily by retail investors, with institutions beginning to participate, according to Goldman Sachs’ head of digital assets, Mathew McDermott. Bitcoin reached an all-time high of ,794 last week and has seen a 50% increase this year. Goldman Sachs launched a crypto trading desk in 2021 and has observed a significant change in client types and trading volumes this year. Analysts suggest that the influx of funds into US spot bitcoin ETFs, which launched this year, may be contributing to bitcoin’s gains. The cryptocurrency market experienced a boom during 2020 and 2021, driven by low interest rates, but faced a downturn in 2022 following a series of bankruptcies among major crypto firms, leading to a trillion loss in market value. McDermott mentioned Goldman Sachs’ interest in bankruptcy claims and investment opportunities in the crypto sector. Despite the volatility and risks associated with bitcoin, there is interest in the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies for trading assets other than cryptocurrencies. McDermott anticipates that more asset classes will be tokenized in the future, potentially gaining scale within one or two years.