Fidelity Digital Assets is getting ready to expand its cryptocurrency team as institutional demand heats up.
According to Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, the firm’s cryptocurrency unit plans to increase its workforce by 70% and hire around 100 new employees in its Dublin, Boston and Utah locations amid strong interest from institutional investors.
“[Last year] was a real breakthrough year for the space, given the interest in Bitcoin that accelerated when the pandemic started.”
Currently, Fidelity Digital Assets only provides custodial and trading services specifically for Bitcoin (BTC). However, now that the pandemic has helped launch crypto demand to new heights, Jessop wants Fidelity to be ahead of the curve when the next wave of crypto adoption comes. He said he’s particularly looking at the second-largest crypto by market cap, Ethereum (ETH).
“We’ve seen more interest in Ether, so we want to be ahead of that demand.”
Along with offering more crypto assets, Fidelity Digital Assets is developing a plan to keep operations open for longer periods of time given that the crypto market never closes, unlike traditional financial markets.
Jessop also notes that, since opening Fidelity’s crypto investment arm, the firm saw demand primarily from family offices and hedge funds. Now, demand seems to be expanding to retirement advisers and corporations that want to own crypto as an asset. He says the biggest shift for new and existing clients is in “the diversity of interest” in other cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin has been the entry for a lot of institutions. It’s now really opening up a window on what else is going on in the space.”
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