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 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 :
•Audited Operations
•Regulatory Oversight
•Institutional Account Structures
•Risk Management Practices— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets)
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.”
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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 , Matthew Le Merle of , Eli Mizroch of , and Travis Kling of
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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