Fidelity is to offer European institutional investors access to its platform for securing, trading and supporting digital assets, such as bitcoin.
The European launch builds upon the company’s 2018 debut of Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a New York state-chartered limited liability trust company that already provides these services to US-based institutional investors.
“Since launching Fidelity Digital Assets in the US over a year ago, we’ve seen significant interest and engagement by the institutional community, which show no signs of slowing,” says Tom Jessop, head of corporate business development for Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Digital Assets. “We’re also encouraged by continued corporate and venture investment in market infrastructure companies as well as the entry of traditional exchanges into the digital assets ecosystem. These and other market indicators, alongside interest expressed from UK and European client prospects, indicate a market with increasing potential which gives us the confidence to expand the digital assets business geographically.”
The firm has hired Chris Tyrer from Barclays bank to head up the European launch. Tyrer served as a managing director at Barclays Investment Bank, leading its digital assets project, which examined the market opportunities for the firm.
“The demand we’ve seen for Fidelity’s digital asset custody and trade execution services has been borderless, and we’re scaling our business to operate in a variety of jurisdictions to support this industry for the long-term,” says Tyrer. “In doing so, we’re building on the commitment to make digitally-native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to institutional investors.”