Goldman Sachs & Co. is aiming to become part of the cryptocurrency trading industry after receiving requests from its clients to facilitate clearing.

That’s according to Chief Financial Officer R. Martin Chavez in response to questions on the GS, +0.01% earnings call earlier Wednesday. Chavez said the most interesting facet of the current craze is blockchain technology, “the distributed general ledger that is of great and very broad application potential,” according to a transcript of the call provided by FactSet.

Blockchain will likely be added to the important drivers of innovation in a few years, he said, and will be more important than bitcoin or any of the other cryptocurrencies, or baskets of cryptocurrencies, that have been introduced on exchanges.

“And so on the back of our clients asking us, will you offer clearing in these contracts, well, we’re in that business of client facilitation,” he said. “And so we want to respond to those client requests, and we have. And we’re in also the business of being careful with our shareholders’ capital, and so we’re doing that with extreme prudence and caution as we learn.”

Read now:5 key reasons bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have lost a stunning $370 billion in 10 days

As far as trading of individual cryptocurrencies goes, there are a number of topics that must first be addressed, he said:

“And being a part of the industry, we’re working on all of that. Custody is a part of it. And it’s a very complex one. So it’s really too early to say how that will evolve for the industry or for ourselves.”

Read also:Goldman Sachs to offer home-improvement loans via its Marcus subsidiary

Earlier, Goldman posted its first quarterly loss in six years as a weak performance by its trading unit added to a one-time charge related to the new tax law. The bank said it had a $1.93 billion loss, or a loss of $5.51 a share, in the quarter, weighed down by a $4.4 billion tax charge.

See:U.S. Treasury official calls cryptocurrencies an ‘evolving threat’

Goldman also was the only one of the five large U.S. banks to report quarterly revenue that declined from a year earlier. trading revenue fell 34% from a year ago, the steepest decline from the banks that have reported so far.

Goldman shares were down 2.4% Wednesday, and have gained 7% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.11% has gained 23% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.87% has gained 31%. The Financial Select SPDR ETF XLF, -0.20% has gained 27% in the last 12 months.

See now:‘This can’t be happening’: Suffering and schadenfreude in crypto community

Don't miss: 7 cryptocurrencies to watch in 2018 if you’re on the hunt for the next bitcoin

See: Why bitcoin’s ugly rout could get worse before it gets better