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Fidelity’s Crypto Custody Service Goes Live For Selected Customers

Fidelity Digital Assets, a new company that offers enterprise-quality custody and trade execution services for cryptocurrencies to institutional investors, has announced that its platform is live. Selected customers have got access to cryptocurrency custody and trade execution operations, while others may have to wait until September.

We are live with a select group of eligible clients and will continue rolling out slowly. Our solutions are focused on the needs of hedge funds, family offices, pensions, endowments, other institutional investors. More on our project: https://t.co/EkJ2pWJt2Y #DCBlockchain

— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) March 7, 2019

Fidelity Digital Assets is a company established by Fidelity, a multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts and the fourth largest asset manager with $2.4 trillion in assets under management as of December 2017. The giant spends $2.5 billion per year on technologies like artificial intelligence and blockchain.

Fidelity Digital Asset Services was set up in October last year with the aim to provide cryptocurrency storage and trading services to institutional and enterprise clients. The company targets institutional investors and works on cryptocurrency solutions for commercial space.

In January, Abigail P. Johnson, Chairman and CEO of Fidelity Investments, revealed the company’s plans to launch Bitcoin custody service, with Ethereum next, and said that the date of launch was set for March. The promise has turned out to be true, and the service is now live.

However, not all customers are able to use it. According to Tom Jessop, Fidelity Digital Assets head, some customers were using the platform in January when it was in the final testing stage, while for other customers, it was March. Others may wait until September.

Jessop explained:

“It really depends on the facts and circumstances of each client.”

It is notable that the service was developed when the crypto market had quite hard times. As Tom Jessop, the last year collapse did not have any impact on the launch. He said:

“If you started a crypto fund at the height of the market you’re probably hurting right now.”

Moreover, Jessop believes that despite the bear market, interest in cryptocurrencies from institutional investors continues to grow, as they are looking for long-term investments. But having a desire to add some form of cryptocurrency to their portfolios, they do not want to take risk connected with the volatility of cryptos, which, at the same time, provides trading opportunities.

According to the research conducted by Fidelity, about 22 percent of institutions asked already own cryptocurrency and expect to double their crypto assets over five years. Jessop said:

“If anything, they are as encouraged now as they were when prices were higher.”

Fidelity Digital Assets will provide a perfect solution for institutional investors who ‘wait and see’ when it comes to investing in cryptos. Earlier, Fidelity said:

“Our conversations with a variety of institutions have served to underscore their clear need for a trusted platform provider in order to engage with digital assets in a meaningful way.

We are committed to exceeding the requirements and standards of existing solutions with both our custody platform and trading venue — providing a combination of security and a central point of market access, disrupting the obfuscated nature of trading digital assets today.”

The new company will conduct trades on multiple exchanges for these investors, as well as handle custody and store digital assets.

Fidelity Digital Assets is one of the first companies to provide similar services. The team behind the company is currently working on improving various parts of the platform and planning to expand its customer base in the near future.

Fidelity’s Crypto Custody Service Goes Live For Selected Customers