Report: Fidelity to Roll Out Crypto Trading ‘Within a Few Weeks’

Financial services giant Fidelity Investments is said to be launching cryptocurrency trading service soon.

A Bloomberg report on Monday, citing “a person familiar with the matter,” said that Fidelity will roll out the service for trading bitcoin “within a few weeks" and will focus on institutional, not retail, customers.

Fidelity spokeswoman Arlene Roberts told Bloomberg:

“We currently have a select set of clients we’re supporting on our platform. We will continue to roll out our services over the coming weeks and months based on our clients’ needs, jurisdictions, and other factors. Currently, our service offering is focused on Bitcoin.”

Just last week, Fidelity published a survey saying that institutional investors are increasingly open to adding digital assets in their portfolios. Around 22 percent of investors already have some exposure to digital assets, while 40 percent said they are open to taking the plunge in the next five years.

Having over $7 trillion assets under management, Fidelity also launched cryptocurrency custody service earlier this year. The giant recently hired a former head of digital assets project from investment bank Barclays.

An increasing number of traditional financial institutions are looking to offer cryptocurrency services. Online stock brokerage firms E*Trade Financial and TD Ameritrade are also said to be preparing to launch cryptocurrency trading services.

Mobile stock trading app Robinhood, on the other hand, launched cryptocurrency trading services over a year ago, and recently announced a plan to launch an initial public offering.

Fidelity image via Shutterstock