Fidelity International Will Soon Enter the Cryptocurrency Space with Digital Asset Trading Desk

With the increased popularity of the cryptocurrency market, it should come as no surprise that traditional finance companies are choosing sides. Fidelity Investments is one of the more innovative companies, as their subsidiary Fidelity International gets closer to entering the cryptocurrency space. According to reports from Ethereum World News and others, Fidelity Investments has already set up Fidelity Digital Assets, a custody operation.

Reports from Financial News indicate that someone close to this matter confirmed the company’s interest in blockchain technology. The same source added that the trading desk for the company is almost prepared to go live. The fact that the company has its own fantasy crypto trading game for staff at the international extension is proof enough that the fund manager is welcoming to cryptocurrency.

Players of this game have to build a crypto portfolio, starting with £10,000 in virtual money. To be eligible for cash prizes, the participants have to gain the biggest returns. Presently, there are already two-thirds of the 1,200-member staff at Fidelity International that have gotten involved.

This trading game was only recently publicized by chief executive Anne Richards at an industry conference last month. Richards stated,

“We have a bitcoin trading game that we use internally, as a way of teaching people about distributed ledger technology and digital tokenization, which ultimately will be an important part of the whole financial system going forward.”

Based on these comments, and if Facebook had anything to do with the recent surge in Bitcoin’s price, then Fidelity’s impact on Bitcoin’s price could show a similar effect.

Many institutions are starting to get involved in the cryptocurrency market, and specifically Bitcoin, which is why some experts believe that they were the key buyers on the sidelines during the crypto winter. With Fidelity’s work in their Digital Assets platform, they will be helping other institutions to get involved in the sector.

If Fidelity were to finally launch products or even just use distributed ledger technology, it would easily establish the brand as a leader in the fund management industry. There are still major legacy costs in this industry, and paper documentation is still maintained. Interoperability concerns are a big reason why the implementation of blockchain has been delayed for this long but choosing to get involved could easily be a big moment for the whole financial sector.

Furthermore, Fidelity’s actions could impact both retail and institutions, which could bring on the launch of mutual funds. However, as the SEC continues to shut down the idea of implementing an exchange-traded fund, these efforts could ultimately be thwarted.

Teana Baker-Taylor, the executive director with Global Digital Finance, spoke with Financial News about the plans that Fidelity International is involved in. Baker-Taylor said,

“This signals to the market that traditional financial investment in digital assets is likely to increase and they intend to maintain their institutional first-mover advantage, providing access to digital assets to their mutual fund and pension clients, as well as private and institutional investors.”