By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 19th, 2024
Fidelity Digital Assets is providing an opportunity for retail investors to experience its crypto trading app commission-free.
Leading investment platform Fidelity is offering early access to its upcoming crypto trading app. The investment giant announced an early waitlist for the new product, which facilitates Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading. According to reports, the new Fidelity Crypto app will let retail investors buy and sell popular digital currencies from their phones for free. This is because Fidelity is currently waiving any commission fees.
Last month, Fidelity launched an Ethereum trading service for institutional traders, explaining that retail traders would soon get the same treatment. At the time, the Boston-based firm explained that these retail traders would soon be able to trade crypto with as little as $1. In addition, Fidelity also stated that said traders would have an integrated view of their traditional and crypto investments.
By launching a dedicated crypto app for retail investors, Fidelity comes into direct competition with several established crypto market players. These include prominent crypto exchange Coinbase as well as stock exchange, exchange-traded fund, and crypto trading facilitator Robinhood.
Fidelity Hopes to Consolidate Crypto Presence with Trading App
Although Fidelity suggested that it would include a 1% spread into every trade execution price, the company may choose to forego this. Deciding against charging any commission may be instrumental in helping Fidelity lure customers and eke out a market share in the saturated space.
Fidelity, one of the world’s largest asset managers, currently has more than $9.9 trillion in assets under administration. The investment giant now looks to parlay much of this success in traditional markets to the crypto realm. Although Fidelity has been interested in entering the crypto market for years, it only made a substantial push this year.
According to the company, its retail investor app will provide insightful market information for users. The information is to improve the learning curve and successfully ease these investors into the cutthroat world of crypto trading. Part of the Fidelity announcement reads:
“To help you make sense of the world of crypto, the Fidelity Investments App will have a unique learning experience. Easily access a growing library of on-demand education and market insights.”
EDX Markets
Fidelity’s digital assets arm, aptly called Fidelity Digital Assets, recently launched EDX Markets in collaboration with other investment giants. Back in September, Charles Schwab, Citadel, Fidelity Digital Assets, and others, launched the initiative as a “first-of-its-kind exchange”. According to the investment group, EDX Markets would give investors a more secure, seamless, and swifter crypto trading experience. To achieve this, the exchange would use technology built by stock exchange, The Members Exchange (MEMX).
Other backers of the EDX Markers scheme include Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Virtu Financial. Further speaking on the initiative, a Fidelity representative explained at the time:
“The intention of the industry consortium is to build market infrastructure that contributes to increased optionality for liquidity to facilitate a more efficient, secure and cost-effective process for trading digital assets.”
Read other crypto news on Coinspeaker.