Crypto mass adoption is coming soon: Fidelity to offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services to institutional customers
October 16 2018 - 6:06AM
ADVFN Crypto NewsWire
- Fidelity Investments announced the launch of a crypto
focused division.
- This step is touted as a significant move towards
crypto adoption.
One of the world's largest asset management companies Fidelity
Investments announced the launch of a new division that will focus
on Bitcoin and Ethereum trading and custody services for
institutional clients, The Financial Times reports.
The new company, Fidelity Digital Assets, will go live in early
2019, while Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital will become one of
its first clients.
It’s a significant move for the crypto industry towards
institutional adoption and a bold decision for a cautious,
regulated company with $7.2 trillion in client assets under
management.
Security considerations, high volatility and lack of confidence
in cryptocurrency assets held large institutions back from getting
involved in trading cryptocurrencies; however, new services offered
by Fidelity Digital Assets may change this trend.
Fidelity has become one of the first large financial
institutions to get involved bitcoin, but offered no crypto-related products
to customers, lagging behind such startups as Robinhood and Square
’s Cash that already provide direct crypto trading to retail
customers.
Now the company is focused on institutional clients, citing a
lot of demand in the market that is still evolving rapidly.
“Our goal is to make digitally-native assets, such
as bitcoin, more accessible to investors. We expect to continue
investing and experimenting, over the long-term, with ways to make
this emerging asset class easier for our clients to understand and
use,” Abigail Johnson, chairman, and chief executive of Fidelity
Investments, said in a statement.
The crypto industry and crypto asset managers met the news with
enthusiasm, noting that this step will clear the significant hurdle
for cryptocurrency mass and institutional adoption.
“For many institutional investors, a trusted custodian like
Fidelity entering the space removes a huge obstacle to investing in
crypto assets. I think we’ll look back on 2018, and particularly
this moment, as the time that crypto became cemented as a new asset
class,” a crypto asset manager Hunter Horsley of Bitwise Asset
Management commented.
Source:
Tanya
Abrosimova FXStreet
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