Fidelity investments will be launching Bitcoin trading for institutional investors “within a few weeks”, Bloomberg has reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.
The Boston-based asset manager launched a custody service to store Bitcoin, as part of its foray into the digital currency space. Now the company is looking to buy and sell the original cryptocurrency for institutional investors, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
Institutional investors
With this move, Fidelity I looking to capitalise on what appears to be a growing interest from institutional investors to invest in digital currencies. Last week, Fidelity Digital Assets, the asset manager’s crypto arm that was created in October, published a survey showing that around 22% of investors already had some exposure to digital currencies, while 40% were open to tap into the sector in the next five years. The survey was conducted among over 400 US institutional investors.
“We currently have a select set of clients we’re supporting on our platform,” Fidelity spokeswoman Arlene Roberts said in an email, as quoted by Bloomberg. “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.”
Bitcoin price rises
Following a difficult 2018, Bitcoin has been showing signs of recovery since the start of this year. The digital coin’s performance has improved significantly in recent weeks, with its price rising 30% in April to finish the month above $5,000. BTC has continued to perform strongly in the early days of May and is now looking to reclaim another major price level.
Having closed yesterday’s session at $5,746.81, Bitcoin has seen a sharp uptick during today’s morning trading, which allowed it to break above the $5,900 mark for the first time since November 14. The coin rose to as high as $5,955.67, before pulling back to slightly lower levels.
In today’s trading, the Bitcoin price stood at $5,948.63, as of 10:43 BST. The digital coin has gained 4.6% in the past 24 hours. Its total market capitalisation currently stands at $105.2 billion, which represents 55.7% of the combined value of all digital currencies.
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