The price of bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies continued to wallow Thursday despite a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. spokesperson saying a report that the bank had abandoned plans to deal in cryptocurrencies was “fake news.”

The crypto crash started Wednesday following a report that claimed that Goldman had ditched its plans to establish a bitcoin desk. That move would likely have offered institutional support for bitcoin hedge funds and bitcoin futures contracts.

But Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer Martin Chavez denied that report, saying at a conference that Goldman Sachs’ “exploration of the digital asset class is an ever-evolving process and is in response to significant client interest.” He added, “I never thought I would hear myself use this term but I really have to describe that news as fake news.”

Muddying the waters even further, Chavez went on to claim partially that the news Goldman was establishing a bitcoin desk was dubious to begin with. “Maybe someone who was thinking about our activities here got very excited that we would be making markets as principal and physical bitcoin, and as they got into it they realized part of the evolution but it’s not here yet,” he said.

In other words, Chavez is saying that Goldman hasn’t abandoned plans to create a bitcoin desk because reports it would do so were false.

The New York Times reported in May that Goldman Sachs was establishing a bitcoin desk and had Rana Yared, managing director of its Goldman’s Principal Strategic Investments Group Securities Division, who was leading the establishment of the bitcoin desk, discussing it on the record.

In 2018, “fake news” has many meanings, but direct quotes in the New York Times from a senior company executive talking about their massive merchant bank establishing a bitcoin desk isn’t fake news no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.

The price of bitcoin has stabilized somewhat and was trading at $6,474.26 as of 8:50 p.m. EDT. Other cryptocurrencies had also stabilized somewhat, but the losses across the board now sit at roughly 20 percent from the average price two days ago.

Photo: mbiddulph/Flickr