• Fidelity Investments has been increasing its range of crypto products in the last year, launching a program to enable the use of Bitcoin in 401(k) plans and offering real-time settlement and Ethereum trading.
• The company is hiring 500 employees to its Digital Assets division and customers can trade Bitcoin and Ether commission-free with as low as $1.
• Cryptocurrency has undergone a transformation in the last year, with the token market value losing over $2 trillion and numerous companies filing for bankruptcy.
Fidelity Investments has been making a play to gain a foothold in the world of cryptocurrency. This privately held brokerage and mutual fund behemoth has been gradually increasing the range of its crypto products over the past year, launching a program to enable the use of Bitcoin in 401(k) plans and offering real-time settlement and Ethereum trading to its institutional clients. With this move, Fidelity is hoping to bring bitcoin to its 40 million individual investors, and has set up a wait list for customers to trade Bitcoin and Ether commission-free, starting „with as little as $1.“
In addition to its customer-facing initiatives, Fidelity has also been building its internal team, hiring 500 employees to its Digital Assets division. With 28 available positions with „digital assets“ in the job description already listed on their website, the company is clearly looking to make a major push into the cryptocurrency space.
Unfortunately, Fidelity’s timing is terrible. Over the course of the past year, cryptocurrency has undergone a transformation, going from a cutting-edge technology to an enormous bubble. As prices fell, more than $2 trillion in token market value was lost, and many companies have filed for bankruptcy, including the infamous FTX scandal that broke in the summer.
Despite the risks, Fidelity is clearly determined to be at the forefront of this future, banking on the belief that cryptocurrency is here to stay. With the addition of its new crypto products and Digital Assets division, Fidelity is hoping to capitalize on the potential of this technology and bring it to the mainstream. Only time will tell if its gamble pays off.