Fidelity Digital Asset Services To Increase Array Of Cryptos

Financial services giant Fidelity Investments has indicated that it is adding some cryptocurrencies for trading and storage to institutional investors. The increase will also include the big five cryptos.

Fidelity has almost $2.5 trillion global assets under management.

Fidelity’s head of Digital Asset Services, Tom Jessop first talked about this while answering a question posed to him at the New York Block FS conference. He also said that the expansion is likely happening in 2019.

Fidelity Digital Asset Services was formed as a separate entity to provide institutions with a platform to safely store and trade virtual currencies. During its formation, the platform provided storage and trading support for BTC and ETH.

Jessop said that they were “looking at” the demand for the top five cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of now, their client base of thirteens thousand is primarily interested in Bitcoin and Ethereum because of their stakes in the cryptocurrency market.

For things considered securities, Jessop noted that,

“When it comes to security tokens or tokens that are likely to be deemed securities, we are waiting for that space to develop. We have some interest, but we don’t think it’s a groundswell of interest, so our focus is really on the top, call it five-seven before we start building capabilities for the tail. But I think it will come.”

Fidelity Investments conducted a thorough investigation for five years before launching their cryptocurrency department, knowing full well what they were getting into.

The investigation helped the financial giant in placing a metaphorical finger on the pulse of the crypto economy, granting them an in-depth knowledge of cryptocurrencies and the distributed ledger technology that underpins them.

Jessop is optimistic about Blockchain technology, saying that it is going through the same phase as the early internet was going through – skepticism from some outsiders but increasing acceptance from the tech industry.

Although cryptocurrencies did not record promising prices this year compared to last year, Fidelity experienced the warmth of the high rates in 2017 when it raised $70 million during a charitable donation using virtual currencies.

Jessop confirmed that the addition would possibly include Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, and Litecoin among others.