Fidelity crypto unit takes aim at Wall Street

Fidelity Investments is jumping into the emerging cryptocurrency arena with a new business to manage digital assets for hedge funds, family offices and trading firms.

The mutual fund giant will offer security and storage services, trade execution and customer service for digital assets, Fidelity said Monday in a statement. The firm is participating today in the Bloomberg Institutional Crypto conference in New York.

Fidelity is moving into crypto at a time when the value of bitcoin has plunged in the past year and as other financial firms have shied away because of unclear regulations, fears of market manipulation or even the prospect that the assets could be used in money laundering.

The business, dubbed Fidelity Digital Assets, is a bet that Wall Street’s nascent appetite for trading and safeguarding digital currencies will grow. It also puts the Boston-based firm a step ahead of top Wall Street players that have mostly stayed on the sidelines so far.

“Our goal is to make digitally native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors,” Fidelity Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson said in the statement.

Fidelity Digital Assets initially will roll out support for bitcoin and Ether starting early next year. It will also offer over-the-counter trade execution and order routing.

Top executives at Fidelity, a 72-year-old firm that’s among the largest providers of retirement savings and mutual fund products, are hoping they can build on the company’s well known brand name and win over institutional customers keen on digital currency trading. The company already works with more than 13,000 financial institutions.

“Most institutions want to deal with another institution,” Tom Jessop, who is heading the unit, said a telephone interview. “We understand institutional finance.”