By
Andy Watson
April 26th, 2024
Financial services provider Fidelity has revealed that its long-awaited crypto trading and custody platform is at its final testing stage.
In October, American financial services giant Fidelity with a 72-year old history made an important announcement. According to it, the company was going to launch a new subsidiary called Fidelity Digital Asset Services to offer cryptocurrency storage and trading services to institutional and enterprise clients.
At that time Fidelity’s CEO noted that the main goal of their initiative to facilitate access to digitally-native assets to investors. Nevertheless, there was no information about the time period when we could expect the launch of the service.
Final Testing
But now in its official blog post, Fidelity has revealed that its cryptocurrency trading and custody platform is in the “final testing and process refinement periods”. It’s obviously quite a positive announcement for those who are waiting for an opportunity to use this service.
Though, the only timeframe mentioned by the company in the context of the launch is “soon”, there are real hopes that it can happen so. Especially given the fact that some unnamed sources familiar with the issue claimed that the introduction of the platform would take place in March. And the company hasn’t denied this information (though it hasn’t confirmed it either).
As it has become clear from the announcement, at the moment Fidelity is providing its new services to a rather small group of select clients and still is working on the building of the platform’s infrastructure.
The firm explained that this work with their initial clients represented itself a part of their final testing and process refinement periods. As a result, the company will be ready to offer these services to a larger group of eligible institutions.
Fidelity’s Platform to Target Institutional Investors
Earlier, Fidelity has already noted that their platform will provide custody and trade execution services for digital assets for institutional investors, including market intermediaries and hedge funds. It means that at the moment, retail investors are not included in the target audience of the platform and won’t be able to enjoy its services.
According to Fidelity, their team is paying a lot of attention to the issues of regulatory compliance. To ensure it and to adapt their operational processes to the existing requirements, the company has been closely working with auditors.
The team emphasized their excitement about the new opportunities that they would provide their clients with and also turned to interested clients in the post, saying:
“Over the next several months, we will thoughtfully engage with and stage prospective clients based on their needs, jurisdiction, and other factors.”
While creating its platform, Fidelity has reached a variety of institutions and has made a conclusion that at the moment they need a trusted platform provider that will help them feasibly manage their digital assets.
It is expected both trading and custody solutions will be ready for the official launch approximately at the same time. Moreover, the company has already disclosed that it will start with institutional-grade crypto custody services for Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside other highly-demanded offerings.
