Financial services giant Fidelity is reportedly preparing to expand its crypto assets division, which is focused on appealing to institutional investors.
In a new report, the Wall Street Journal says that Fidelity Digital Asset Services will be doubling its roster of crypto assets beyond that of just Bitcoin (BTC) to include leading smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH).
Fidelity also has plans to bring 110 tech workers into the mix, as well as fill 100 customer service positions to facilitate and accommodate the subsidiary’s future growth.
Fidelity Digital Assets’ president Tom Jessop says the company has a macro vision that looks beyond the crypto market’s recent downturn.
“We’re trying not to focus on the downturns and focus on some of the long-term indicators [such as demand from clients].
We are trying to build infrastructure for the future because we measure success over years and decades, not weeks and months.”
Head of product Terrence Dempsey says that the firm’s client roster is around 400 strong and includes industry professionals, such as hedge funds, asset managers and investment advisers.
According to the company website, Fidelity offers cold-storage custody, which includes the ability to trade digital assets. The trust was approved by the State of New York in 2019.
At time of writing, there are 92 job openings listed on the Fidelity careers page for its crypto division.
Fidelity first announced its intentions to offer custody services for Bitcoin in 2019.
As CEO Abigail Johnson said at the time,
“[The cryptocurrency industry] is not going away. As long as the value is there, people will look to preserve that value.
There are people out there with significant amounts of wealth in cryptocurrencies… and they’re looking for somebody to hold those coins for them because in the event of their passing… you’ve got to have a plan to be able to get those coins to somebody else.”
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