One of the most popular investor platforms in the country is set to allow Bitcoin trading for institutional investors, according to new reports from Bloomberg and other sources.
Fidelity has been a popular online brokerage for depositor accounts, as well as an established partner for institutional trades.
The new report of crypto trading functionality builds on Fidelity’s Digital Asset Service, which has offered crypto coin custody in the past, and plans to expand its over-the-counter trading options.
Fidelity spokespersons call the DAS “Institutional solutions for a new asset class,” describing its functionality this way:
“Institutions require highly available, trusted, enterprise-grade services to store, transact, and service their digital asset investments. These capabilities are widely available for stocks, bonds, and other asset types, but have been lacking in this emerging digital asset class. Fidelity is trusted today by thousands of institutions and financial intermediaries, and through Fidelity Digital AssetsSM is extending its capabilities to deliver a reliable, secure, and compliant platform for this emerging asset class.”
“Fidelity’s new company will execute trades on multiple exchanges for these professional investors,” wrote Kate Rooney at CNBC March 8, describing how the DAS works. “It also handles custody, or the safe storage of digital assets. Until Fidelity, there had been a noticeable lack of a big U.S.-based company in that business.”
The timeline for the new services has been somewhat chaotic.
“While the company is live, certain aspects are still a work in progress,” Rooney wrote, citing information from Fidelity DAS head Tom Jessop. “Fidelity is expanding the jurisdictional coverage of where it can do business. And its offerings are not one-size-fits-all. Some customers were using the platform in January, while for other customers, it was March. Others may wait until September.”
Analysts note that until Fidelity’s move, there was no big company operating in this particular space. Expanding how institutional trading works could be one big part of the jigsaw puzzle that, when we put the pieces together, clearly spells out BLOCKCHAIN 2020!
