Fidelity Launches Cryptocurrency Custody Business

This article is contributed by our content partner, Nexchange NOW.

Watch out Coinbase, Fido has you in its sights.

In a rare interview with Fidelity Investments CEO Abigaile Johnson, the Financial Times revealed that the Boston-based asset management giant is “now engaged in a full rollout” of its cryptocurrency custody and trading service.

The service, called Fidelity Digital Assets, was originally available to a limited number of clients on a trial basis but is now open to all qualified investors. Johnson called the launch “a boon to what is a fragmented and complicated industry.”

“[The cryptocurrency industry] is not going away. As long as the value is there, people will look to preserve that value,” Johnson said.

“There are people out there with significant amounts of wealth in cryptocurrencies, probably bitcoin, and they’re looking for somebody to hold those coins for them because in the event of their passing.”

Fidelity Digital Assets’ launch pits the company against several other platforms, most notable of which is San Francisco-based Coinbase. Johnson, however, sees her trillion-dollar company’s large client base and network as obvious advantages against them.

Coinbase, Johnson said, “is still a company that most people had never heard of, and they don’t have the existing relationships with the independent advisers.”

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Original Article: http://www.nexchangenow.com/news/fintech/71196/fidelity-launches-cryptocurrency-custody-business/