Fidelity Investments, an American Multinational asset management company is launching a new business to manage digital assets for institutional investors, according to a Bloomberg report.

Fidelity Investments holds more than $7 trillion worth of assets in its portfolio. The move marks the first high profile investment company’s move into the crypto world. Dubbed as Fidelity Digital assets, the business would cater to the nascent appetite of Wall Street Investors as the value of digital currencies grow. The company is currently focusing on bitcoin as an investment option, and would later support Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

Fidelity is partnering up with brokerage firms Robinhood and E*Trade Financial Corp to offer cryptocurrency trading to institutional customers. According to the Bloomberg report, an internal study by the company revealed that the investors now think that cryptocurrencies are now worth investing in. Arlene Roberts, the spokeswoman for Fidelity in an email to Bloomberg said:

We currently have a select set of clients we’re supporting on our platform, and We will continue to roll out our services over the coming weeks and months based on our clients’ needs, jurisdictions, and other factors. Currently, our service offering is focused on Bitcoin.

The survey conducted by Fidelity questioned 441 institutional investors from November 2018 to February of this year. It revealed that almost 72% of the investors would prefer buying investment products that hold digital assets while 57% would prefer purchasing the cryptocurrencies directly.

Why Fidelity’s Move into the Business is a Big Deal

One of the biggest hurdles that are stopping investment in cryptocurrencies is that the commodity has been plagued with fraud. Just last month on the biggest crypto exchange company in the United States Bitfinex was accused of covering up 850 million dollars in losses by using Tether’s funds. The case is already in progress in a NewYork court. Bitfinex was also allegedly behind the 2017 price hike of bitcoin when the cryptocurrency reached more than 20,000$ in value. The uncertainty of bitcoin and the risks have always held investors back from investing in cryptocurrency. However, Fidelity’s move into the crypto investment space is a positive development for the crypto world in general. Fidelity’s size and magnitude will surely create confidence in investors and investment in digital assets may see a boost.

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Fidelity has Long been Teasing a Move into Crypto

The move is not a shocker, as the company was teasing a move into crypto for a long time. In a statement given to Bloomberg last year, Tom Jessop who runs Fidelity’s crypto business said that the company has been researching digital assets for over five years and has been involved in bitcoin mining operations since 2015.

In April, the company also hired the former head of digital assets management at Barclays Chris Tyrer. Tyrer was working on the development of Barclays’s own cryptocurrency trading desk which was rumored to launch last year; however, the CEO of Barclays snubbed that idea publicly at the end of 2018. This is not the first hire by Fidelity, Coinbase’s director of Institutional sales was also hired by the company in March this year.

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