Fidelity Investments’ crypto-asset division, focused primarily on the market leader Bitcoin, has just been granted a key license by the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing them to further expand their foray into cryptocurrency and blockchain.
According to a blog update from Fidelity Digital Assets (FDAS), the NYDFS has just given it a ” limited purpose trust company charter.” This will allow it to launch a platform for cryptocurrency custody and execution “on which institutional investors and individuals can securely store, purchase, sell, and transfer bitcoin” to residents of New York, said the financial regulator.
4 elements of institutional-caliber operations for #digitalassets:
•Audited Operations
•Regulatory Oversight
•Institutional Account Structures
•Risk Management Practiceshttps://t.co/NacvtR2yoV— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) November 19, 2019
This news comes shortly after the chief executive of the financial services giant, which has over $2 trillion under management, said to the Financial Times that her cryptocurrency subsidiary intends to roll out custody to a larger group of Fidelity’s clients. Abigail Johnson said at the time that FDAS is “now engaged in a full rollout of its custody and trading services for digital assets.”
Related Reading: Wyckoff Study Suggests Bitcoin Bottom In, Price Could Pass $14,000
Good News as Bitcoin Price Flails
The news regarding Fidelity’s license comes as the price of BTC has flailed, falling all the way back to $8,000 after surging 42% to $10,500 just weeks ago.
More likely than not, the approval of Fidelity to launch trading and custody of Bitcoin in New York won’t provide a short-term boon to the cryptocurrency market.
Just look at the launch of products like the CME futures, which seemingly did not have a material impact on the Bitcoin market for a while because of the slow onboarding process that institutions have to undergo.
Though, it should be a long-term benefit to the cryptocurrency market.
CryptoOracle recently hosted a conference call with four industry venture capitalists/investors: Matthew Welsh of Castle Island Ventures, Matthew Le Merle of Blockchain Coinvestors, Eli Mizroch of Silver Castle Digital Currency Investment Group, and Travis Kling of Ikigai Asset Management.
While these are investors from all over the world with presumably distinct theses, they all centered around similar ideas regarding institutional involvement in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency: they all said that institutional adoption remains a while away, due to immaturity in “three key infrastructure categories”: qualified custody, regulated spot ventures and futures exchanges, and robust data providers at an institutional scale.
FDAS’ license will help solve the abovementioned issues.
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