Recently, Tom Jessop, President of Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Boston-headquartered American multinational financial services company Fidelity Investments, talked about the increasing demand for crypto service from institutional investors.
On 15 October 2018, Fidelity Investments announced via a press release the launch of a new company, Fidelity Digital Asset Services (aka “Fidelity Digital Assets”), which would offer “enterprise-quality custody and trade execution services” for cryptocurrencies to institutional investors (such as “hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries”).
Abigail P. Johnson, President and CEO of Fidelity Investments, had this to say back then:
“Our goal is to make digitally-native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors. We expect to continue investing and experimenting, over the long-term, with ways to make this emerging asset class easier for our clients to understand and use.“
And Tom Jessop, head of Fidelity Digital Assets, stated:
“We started exploring blockchain and digital assets several years ago, and those efforts have been successful in helping us understand and advance our thinking around cryptocurrencies. The creation of Fidelity Digital Assets is the first step in a long-term vision to create a full-service enterprise-grade platform for digital assets.“
The idea was for Fidelity Digital Assets to offer:
- Institutional-Grade Custody of Digital Assets
- Trade Execution
- Dedicated Client Service
According to a Bloomberg News article (by reporter Matthew Leising) published earlier today, Jessop said during an interview that Fidelity Digital Assets is planning to add 100 new employees in three of its offices (in Dublin, Boston, and Salt Lake City) and that this would allow his firm (which currently offers crypto services for Bitcoin) to support similar services for altcoins.
Regarding Ethereum (ETH), Jessop said in the interview:
“We’ve seen more interest in Ether, so we want to be ahead of that demand.“
Jessop also mentioned that demand for cryptoassets from institutional investors has been increasing and that although initially their clients were mostly family offices and hedge funds, they are now seeing interest from retirement advisers and corporations that want to hold crypto as part of their investment portfolios.
He said:
“Bitcoin has been the entry for a lot of institutions. It’s now really opening up a window on what else is going on in the space.“
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
