Crypto Fidelitys ambitions are bigger than expected: report

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Fidelitys’ plan to corner the cryptocurrency market appears to be more ambitious than previously imagined, as the asset manager seeks to provide more institutional pathways to digital assets.

In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, Chrstine Sandler, head of sales and marketing for Fidelity Digital Assets, said institutional interest in crypto is growing. For most investors, the main entry into crypto has been Bitcoin (BTC) and, to a lesser extent, Ether (ETH).

Tom Jessop, who heads Fidelity Digital Assets, said the pandemic was a major motivation for investors to finally get into crypto:

What has really scared people off is the pandemic, because you have this rare asset class, there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins created and an environment where our currency is degraded, and there is a ton of silver printing.

It’s no secret that most institutional investors are carefully participating in the crypto market for the first time this year. The institutional interest remains mainly in the direct purchase of Ethereum or Bitcoin. Fidelity Investment appears to have a head start, aiming to be among the first to provide the infrastructure necessary for investors to enter the crypto market directly.

It was in March of this year that Fidelity submitted Document S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission to formally seek approval of its own Bitcoin ETF named Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. At the end of July, Fidelity acquired a 7.4% stake in North American crypto-miner Marathon Digital Holdings, worth $ 20 million.

Fidelity has also created its own specialist venture capital division called Devonshire Investors, investing in cryptocurrency startups like ErisX, Talos and Coin Metrics.

The company’s crypto ambitions have been fueled by growing customer demand to access crypto investment opportunities. A similar trend is seen in major institutional funds and banks in the United States and around the world. As Cointelegraph recently reported, US bank JPMorgan now offers its clients access to six dedicated crypto funds. After their initial reviews of digital assets, companies like BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Citibank have also expressed a more positive view of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, a recent survey by London-based crypto fund Nickel Digital Asset Management found that the majority of wealth managers plan to increase their exposure to crypto in the years to come.

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