Fidelity Investments is reported to be planning to bring Bitcoin trading to its 34.4 million brokerage clients.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Fidelity could be set to expand its cryptocurrency offerings having been one of the first mainstream financial firms to truly back digital currency and blockchain technology.
Fidelity, which manages about $4 trillion dollars of assets, has had a Bitcoin-trading business for hedge funds and other institutional investors since 2018 and has mined Bitcoin since 2015.
Earlier this year they allowed corporate clients to add Bitcoin to their 401(k) retirement plans, while they have a link on retail customers’ accounts to Coinbase and also opened a crypto fund for wealthy customers.
During a speech at the SALT conference earlier this week, CEO of Galaxy Holdings Mike Novogratz said: “A bird told me that Fidelity, a little bird in my ear, is going to shift their retail customers into crypto soon enough.
“I hope that bird is right. And so, we are seeing this institutional march.”
Rivals of Fidelity have used access to digital assets and crypto as a key selling point for new and younger investors. The firm has yet to share any plans with clients but in a statement to The Block on the matter, hinted at the decision.
“While we have nothing new to announce, expanding our offerings to enable broader access to digital assets remains an area of focus,” it read.
Fidelity Federal Scrutiny
However, despite the news being welcomed in the crypto space, it may not be so welcome at the Federal level in the US.
The US Department of Labour previously said it had “grave concerns” at Fidelity’s decision to Bitcoin investing in a 401(k), while a pair of US senators also expressed worry over the plan.
“Investing in cryptocurrencies is a risky and speculative gamble, and we are concerned that Fidelity would take these risks with millions of Americans’ retirement savings,” Democrat Senators Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Tina Smith (Minnesota) wrote in a letter addressed to Fidelity Chief Executive Abigail Johnson.