Goldman Sachs sought to woo FTX at Caribbean meeting

Goldman Sachs sought to woo FTX at Caribbean meeting

Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon met with billionaire FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in March to discuss forging closer ties between the Wall Street bank and the barely three-year-old cryptocurrency exchange valued at $32bn.

The meeting, which took place in the Caribbean, according to people familiar with the matter, is the latest sign of the growing influence of crypto companies in the traditional financial services sector.

During the meeting, Solomon and Bankman-Fried discussed Goldman advising FTX in its discussions with US regulators, in particular the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US derivatives watchdog, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In March, FTX filed a proposal to the CFTC that would allow it to sell leveraged crypto derivatives to retail investors and settle their trades directly, cutting out intermediate financial brokers such as Goldman.

Goldman is also eager to advise the crypto start-up on future funding rounds and the two chief executives discussed whether the bank could take a role in a potential initial public offering of FTX, two people said.

FTX, which was founded by the now 30-year-old Bankman-Fried in Hong Kong in 2019, was valued at $32bn in January, more than the market capitalisations of Credit Suisse or Deutsche Bank.

Goldman led a syndicate of banks