Goldman Sachs recently announced plans to expand its digital assets team, in a move that could signal the investment giant's commitment to exploring blockchain-related applications.

The bank's head of digital assets, Mathew McDermott, said last week that the team, which had only four members when he took the helm in 2020, now stands at 70. He added that the team will take on more members “as appropriate” this year.

The news comes on the heels of the bank's recent layoffs of over 3,000 employees. Goldman Sachs did not respond to a request for comment.

McDermott's comments were reportedly made in Hong Kong, where the city issued its first tokenized green bond worth $100 million using Goldman’s protocol called GS DAP (Digital Assets Platform). The DAP is built on a private permissioned blockchain, not a public blockchain.

McDermott believes that public blockchains are not yet ready to support major financial transactions due to safety and regulatory concerns. However, he believes that the Goldman platform could support more services, including derivatives and private equity, as it enables investors to “see more data, have more transparency, more accurate pricing on an asset.”

Asset tokenization is becoming increasingly popular in the industry, with other corporates like Siemens and Hamilton Lane also launching their own projects.

Goldman Sachs also recently showed interest in snapping up distressed crypto companies. McDermott told Reuters that banks saw an opportunity to gain from the collapse, and that Goldman would be conducting due diligence to evaluate the potential of various companies. He added that they would be “priced much more sensibly.” It is unclear whether Goldman has executed that plan.