Despite a series of scandals, bankruptcies, regulatory investigations, and other issues that the crypto market endured last year, including multiple bankruptcies and fraud investigations, the Wall Street financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs has ranked Bitcoin as the best-performing asset in the world this year.

According to the year-to-date asset return report by Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest crypto has performed better than the S&P 500, gold, real estate, and the Nasdaq 100 this year.

In addition, Bitcoin has “outperformed MSCI emerging markets index, MSCI developed markets, energy, information technology (IT), financials, 10-year U.S. Treasury, health care, utilities, materials, crude oil, consumer staples”, amongst others, reveals the document.

The report’s findings have taken many industry experts and commentators by surprise, as Goldman Sachs has previously been a vocal critic of crypto.

As such, it comes into a select club of U-turns from high-profile financial institutions.

Last year, the world’s largest asset manager and previous Bitcoin basher and crypto cynic, Black Rock, with $10 trillion in assets under management, partnered with a major crypto exchange to provide its institutional investors with access to digital currencies.

And just last week in Davos, the Swiss mountain resort, for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, which with US$3.774 trillion in total assets, is the fifth-largest banking institution in the world, took the opportunity to bash Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, telling CNBC in an interview, “Bitcoin itself is a hyped-up fraud. It’s a pet rock.”

A bizarre thing to say, considering his bank is moving to the crypto space. 

For example, it has created its own digital coin, allows its wealth management clients to buy into Bitcoin and Ethereum, and recently posted openings for digital assets counsel positions with its corporate and investment bank.

Now JPMorgan’s rival, Goldman Sachs, is extolling Bitcoin’s virtue. Mr Dimon might be encouraged to follow suit. Time will tell.