Cryptocurrencies have had a rough go of it this year, with the prices of the leading digital tokens including bitcoin and ethereum plummeting. The knock on virtual currency: it has failed to take off with the masses as regulators have increased scrutiny and retailers havent embraced it as a payment method.
Fidelity Investments, however, could play a role in changing all that.
This week it announced it was creating a stand-alone company that is focused solely on bringing cryptocurrency trading to institutional investors. Dubbed Fidelity Digital Assets, the company will offer institutional investors custody services, a cryptocurrency platform and advising to its institutional clients.
Fidelity isnt going after retail investors with the offering, but it could help boost the validity of cryptocurrencies, eventually pushing it downstream to regular investors. After all, when the CME Group and CBOE World Markets launched their bitcoin futures in the early part of 2018 most of the online brokerages balked at offering it to their retail clients. They worried that the price fluctuation and lack of regulatory oversight could get their customers in trouble. TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE and TradeStation were among the few to move full steam ahead but none have come up with a way yet for retail investors to trade digital tokens directly.
Full article can be found here :
https://www.forbes.com/sites/donnafuscaldo/2018/10/16/will-fidelity-be-what-it-takes-to-bring-crypto-trading-to-the-masses/#3198a89b1936