Fidelity wants to expand its workforce to meet the growing demand for cryptocurrencies.
This is revealed by Bloomberg, which quotes the words of Fidelity Digital Assets president Tom Jessop.
According to reports, Fidelity could increase its staff by at least 100 people spread across Dublin, Boston and Salt Lake City.
The new arrivals are expected to help develop new products related to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
At the moment, Fidelity only offers trading, custody and other bitcoin-related services. But the growing demand for cryptocurrencies, coupled with bitcoin’s record highs of $65,000 and Ethereum’s record high of $4,300, have increased interest in the sector. An interest certainly heightened by the pandemic as well. Tom Jessop said:
“We’ve seen more interest in Ether, so we want to be ahead of that demand”.
Fidelity’s cryptocurrency services
At the moment, Fidelity Digital Assets is primarily aimed at institutional investors. In partnership with BlockFi it allows the purchase of bitcoin with cash collateral. However, the time has come to broaden its horizons to include Ethereum, in part because Fidelity’s customers are hedge funds, financial advisers and companies that want to include cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets.
According to Fidelity’s chairman:
“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”.
The difference between the current bitcoin rally and previous rallies is the growing demand from institutional investors. That’s why there are those who speculate that even the current price drop, which has led BTC to halve from April’s record highs, is not a tragedy. Not surprisingly, there is talk of a “milder” crypto winter.
But like in previous rallies, bitcoin has also dragged behind altcoins, which have outperformed BTC. Such as Ether, which is increasingly attracting institutional investors. It is no coincidence that ETFs on Ethereum are also starting to be launched. It is also no coincidence that Grayscale has trusts not only in bitcoin but also in altcoins, allowing its clients to have exposure to other cryptocurrencies as well.
Fidelity is tapping into these needs and wants to expand by becoming more focused on cryptocurrency services for institutional clients.
