2019-1-30 02:04 |
Fidelity Investments could be launching its cryptocurrency custody service as soon as March 2019. The information was released by Bloomberg on January 29.
According to CoinDesk, the Storage component of Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC (FDAS) is currently live. Additionally, they are already managing some assets for its clients.
The company informed in a recent statement:
“We are currently serving a select set of eligible clients as we continue to build our initial solutions. Over the next several months, we will thoroughly engage with and prioritize prospective clients based on needs, jurisdiction and other factors.”
Bloomberg reports that Bitcoin (BTC) will be the first asset that will be receiving support, followed by Ether (ETH). If the services are launched in March, this will be in line with what Tom Jessop, executive in charge of FDAS, commented in the past.
Custody is a very important service that must be provided to clients dealing with virtual currencies. With these services, companies and investors will be able to reduce the risk of having these assets lost or stolen. Although there are some crypto companies already offering custody services, financial institutions and larger investors were waiting for traditional financial companies to release their services to the market.
Fidelity has been involved in the virtual currency market since 2015, when they’ve started mining Bitcoin. Abigail Johnson, the CEO of Fidelity, is betting on being one of the first companies offering crypto services to Wall Street clients that are ready to enter the crypto space.
There are other companies that are also working in order to offer similar services to institutions. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is also going to launch Bakkt, a platform for large financial institutions that will also offer Bitcoin futures contracts.
Fidelity is one of the largest providers in the world of retirement savings and mutual funds. The company hopes it can leverage its name and attract institutional customers that want to trade cryptocurrencies.
In general, digital currencies are difficult to manage since users need to keep their private keys safe and far from malicious third parties.
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