Fidelity Investments plans to make significant inroads into the emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain technology industry. The U.S. finance behemoth will most likely announce some of its upcoming projects before the end of 2018.
Announcements Coming Before the End of the Year
According to Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson, the company already has a dedicated team working on several cryptocurrency and blockchain products. This move comes as several U.S. finance industry giants begin to make definitive moves into the sector.
At the recently concluded Boston Fintech Week, Johnson said:
We’ve got a few things underway, a few things that are partially done but also kind of on the shelf because it’s not really the right time. We hope to have some things to announce by the end of the year.
For Fidelity, the transition into more serious endeavors in the cryptocurrency space is in many ways a continuation of its recent efforts in the industry. According to Johnson, the firm has spent considerable time and resources on different means of adopting the technology.
Commenting further on the company’s experiences so far, the Fidelity Investments CEO said:
Most of them [use cases] have been scrapped by now or at least put on the shelf. The things that actually survived were not the things I think necessarily we expected. We were trying to listen to the marketplace and anticipate what would make sense.
Committed to Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Capacity Building
Already, the firm has some involvement in the cryptocurrency market. In August, Fidelity Investments announced that it would provide its customers with access to Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs) offered by XBT Provider. At the time, the move provided a BTC ETF soft option given the U.S. SEC’s reticence to approve a Bitcoin ETF.
A little over a year ago, the firm also debuted a Bitcoin price tracker in partnership with U.S. cryptocurrency exchange behemoth Coinbase. The tool allows the firm’s customers to monitor their Bitcoin investments alongside their more traditional assets.
Fidelity also had plans to unveil its own cryptocurrency fund. However, in June 2018, the company announced that it was dropping the proposed project but would continue to develop a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
What do you think about Fidelity Investment’s latest foray into the emerging cryptocurrency and blockchain technology industry? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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