As far as asset management is concerned, Fidelity Investments is right up there with the largest firms in the world. Over the years, the company has tried to stay ahead of its competition by continuously changing the way that they do business.
So it should not be a total shock that the firm will become one of the biggest names on Wall Street to get into cryptocurrencies. Fidelity is jumping in a big way when its crypto trading platform for institutional investors is launched in the next few weeks.
Fidelity is one of the few Wall Street giants to have shown an interest in the crypto space and had actually launched a Bitcoin custody service back in 2018.
Crypto Trading
Most of the biggest firms on Wall Street have basically ignored cryptocurrencies despite the dramatic growth in the value of most coins.
Fidelity has now decided to offer its big ticket institutional clients with a dedicated crypto trading service. The company conducted an internal survey with its institutional investors and according to its findings, as many as 47% of those investors stated that they would be interested in trading in cryptocurrencies.
Although well known brokerage houses like Robinhood and E Trade have also started their own crypto trading services, Fidelity’s service is different since it is only meant for institutions and not retail investors. A spokesperson confirmed that only a select group of institutional clients are going to get access to the platform. The platform will only offer Bitcoin trading at this point in time.
Opportunity
Over the years, cryptocurrency has been beset with problems related to security and safety. Many exchanged have been hacked and customers have lost cryptocurrencies worth millions. However, the entry of a behemoth like Fidelity will almost certainly guarantee that security is never an issue on its trading platform.
More importantly, Bitcoin has surged against in 2019 after going through a slump last year and that creates the perfect opportunity for Fidelity to enter the fray while the interest in the cryptocurrency rises among institutional investors.
Read more at: http://economicgazette.com/news/fidelity-to-offer-cryptocurrency-trading-in-may/
