Bloomberg Report: Fidelity Will Start Institutional Bitcoin Trading Within Weeks

United States $7 trillion investment firm Fidelity will reportedly roll out bitcoin (BTC) trading for institutional clients in the coming weeks, Bloomberg reported on May 6.

Citing a source who asked to remain anonymous, the publication revealed Fidelity’s cryptocurrency-focused spin-off, Fidelity Digital Assets, would be adding to the existing range of services.

The subsidiary launched in October 2018 and has offered cryptocurrency custody from March this year ahead of planned over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

Now, the trading side will go live for Fidelity’s users in as little as several weeks, the source said, and will primarily target large-volume traders like other OTC offerings.

While Fidelity itself did not confirm the time frame, the company hinted that its future direction would only involve more integration with the bitcoin space.

“We currently have a select set of clients we’re supporting on our platform,” spokeswoman Arlene Roberts told Bloomberg. She added:

“We will continue to roll out our services over the coming weeks and months based on our clients’ needs, jurisdictions, and other factors. Currently, our service offering is focused on Bitcoin.”

The report comes on the back of a survey Fidelity conducted last week that revealed consistent appetite for bitcoin among its target market.

Specifically, 22% of the over 400 institutional investors who responded said they already owned the cryptocurrency as part of their portfolio. Almost half were sympathetic to including it.

“More institutional investors are engaging with digital assets, either directly or through service providers, as the potential impact of blockchain technology on financial markets — new and old — becomes more readily apparent,” Fidelity Digital Assets president Tom Jessop commented in an accompanying press release.