Former Goldman Sachs banker explains why Wall Street gets Bitcoin wrong
John Haar, a former asset manager at financial institution Goldman Sachs believes the lack of support from “legacy finance” for Bitcoin stems from a poor understanding of the cryptocurrency.
Haar’s views were expressed in an essay on Aug. 14, which was originally sent to private clients of Bitcoin brokerage platform Swan Bitcoin. Haar previously spent 13 years at Wall Street asset management giant Goldman Sachs, before joining Swan Bitcoin as managing director of Private Client Services in April 2022.
The essay explains that not only do people in “legacy finance” fail to understand what he considers one of Bitcoin’s (BTC) primary principles, the idea of sound money is lost on them in general, which Haar says leads them to negative opinions about the crypto.
Haar noted that he became interested in Bitcoin in 2017 based on the hype he saw in traditional media about it.
He believes that the history and fundamentals of Bitcoin made him excited to discuss it with anyone, adding that Bitcoin "improves upon gold's shortcomings."
On the other hand, Haar notes that negativity from Wall Street is a result of six different reasons stemming from a lack of research on Bitcoin and an understanding of history. He acknowledged that becoming familiar with the Bitcoin lexicon and its underlying principles is a “daunting task,” but that people in legacy finance do themselves no favors by pretending to understand them.
He also believes conditioning through governmental central planning, people generally following the consensus, only thinking about its application in developed countries, and a desire to maintain the status quo are also contributing factors. Haar said that these last four aspects conspire in various ways to act as a shield for
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