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Fidelity, the Boston-based financial services firm with $2.8 trillion USD under management, is fully rolling out its cryptocurrency custody service after launching in fall 2018 and adding some clients in a limited capacity at the beginning of 2019.

Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity, highlighted that this move makes a difference for everyday non-technical customers that want to invest their money in digital currency regardless. She also addressed how their custody service helps individuals figure out how to pass on their cryptocurrency assets after they die and/or dealing with lost USB drives, saying that individuals have “got to have a plan to be able to get those coins to somebody else”. She also addressed the fact that Coinbase has already introduced a cryptocurrency custody service and stores billions of dollars of assets for third parties. Johnson said that Coinbase “is still a company that most people had never heard of, and they don’t have the existing relationships with the independent advisers.

Fidelity’s cryptocurrency activity is a sign growing interest

Fidelity has been very active in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, mostly during the time that Johnson has been the CEO since 2014. Back in 2014, Fidelity started to explore cryptocurrency investment options and even set up a Bitcoin mining rig that cost around $200,000 dollars. Ultimately, the company settled on custody services as the best option and as a sign on their commitment, Fidelity Digital Assets submitted “an application to operate as a limited-purpose trust company with the New York State Department of Financial Services”, according to the Financial Times, which would greatly enhances the number of institutions that they can serve.

Fidelity does not currently offer crypto trading opportunities at the retail level since they “want to be very careful about making sure that investors who really aren’t institutional investors […] don’t make a mistake with cryptocurrency”, according to Kathleen Murphy, personal investing president of Fidelity Investments. However, Abigail Johnson, is very confident in the future potential of cryptocurrencies, especially from an investment perspicuity.

“It’s not going away. As long as the value is there, people will look to preserve that value.”

Dash already being included in investment portfolios, including Fidelity indirectly

Neptune Dash, a publicly traded company that runs dedicated and shared Dash masternodes has an investment by Fidelity that amounts to just under 10% of its shares. Additionally, Dash was announced as being on the shortlist for addition to Coinbase custody services, which now has a higher probability of occurring after Dash’s long exclusion from Coinbase Pro and Coinbase regular finally came to an end last month. Plus, Dash comprised the largest position at the launch of a long-term focused Twitter sentiments cryptocurrency portfolio created by an eToro and The TIE partnership.

Dash is a favorite among traders due to its fast speeds and inexpensive transactions, which has helped its adoption and investment efforts. Additionally, Dash recently launched the Dash Investment Foundation to better enable the network to invest in projects that improve the network and thus creates a better return for those that hold the coin. Finally, individuals also have the option to host their own masternode or participate in shared nodes to gain access to Dash’s returns for processing transactions.