Fidelity Investments launched Fidelity Digital Assets on Oct. 15, 2018, and named Tom Jessop head of the new unit1. The firm managed $7.2 trillion in client assets at the time and already served more than 13,000 institutions. Fidelity Digital Assets would hold and trade bitcoin, ether and other digital assets for those clients, aimed at hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries among them.
Eight executive hires on the record in 2018
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2018: 8
- 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 8 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
Institutional Custody & Asset Management led executive hires in 2018, with three
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified in 2018, by the sector of the company
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Institutional Custody & Asset Management | 3 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 2 |
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 1 |
The launch
Abigail Johnson, Fidelity's chairman and CEO, framed the new unit around access. “Our goal is to make digitally-native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors,” Johnson said. “We expect to continue investing and experimenting, over the long-term, with ways to make this emerging asset class easier for our clients to understand and use.”1 SiliconANGLE confirmed the launch the same day. It reported that Fidelity's trade platform would use “a proven internal crossing engine and smart order router for execution of digital assets at multiple market venues”2. SiliconANGLE also quoted Hunter Horsley, Bitwise's chief executive officer. “For many institutional investors, a trusted custodian like Fidelity entering the space removes a huge obstacle to investing in cryptoassets,” Horsley said.
Jessop had arrived from a career at Goldman Sachs and the presidency of Chain Inc. He described the company's own history with the technology. “We started exploring blockchain and digital assets several years ago, and those efforts have been successful in helping us understand and advance our thinking around cryptocurrencies,” Jessop said. “The creation of Fidelity Digital Assets is the first step in a long-term vision to create a full-service enterprise-grade platform for digital assets.”1
What Fidelity built
Fidelity Digital Assets offered two services at launch. One was an "institutional-grade omnibus storage solution" for bitcoin and ether, built on vaulted cold storage and multi-level physical and cyber controls1. The other was trade execution across multiple market venues. Fidelity's Blockchain Incubator had researched digital assets since 2013, the company said. It had experimented with bitcoin mining before the custody unit graduated into its own standalone company.
What came next
Jessop ran Fidelity Digital Assets past its launch and into new products. CoinDesk reported on Dec. 9, 2020 that the unit, with Jessop still its president, had partnered with crypto lender BlockFi3. The deal let institutional clients borrow cash against bitcoin held in Fidelity's custody. “The new service will target bitcoin investors who are keen to turn their holdings into cash without selling, as well as hedge funds, miners and over-the-counter trading desks,” Jessop said of the product. “As the markets grow, we'd expect that this becomes a fairly important part of the ecosystem,” he added. CoinDesk also reported that Fidelity Digital Assets had received a trust company charter the previous November, from the New York Department of Financial Services. That license let it custody bitcoin for institutional investors directly.
Sources
- Fidelity Investments, "Fidelity Launches Fidelity Digital Assets," Fidelity Investments, Oct. 15, 2018, https://www.lifehealth.com/fidelity-launches-fidelity-digital-assets%E2%84%A0/
- Duncan Riley, "Fidelity launches digital asset custody and trading service for institutional investors," SiliconANGLE, Oct. 15, 2018, https://siliconangle.com/2018/10/15/fidelity-launches-digital-asset-custody-trading-service-institutional-investors/
- Tanzeel Akhtar, "Fidelity Digital to Accept Bitcoin Collateral on Cash Loans for Institutions," CoinDesk, Dec. 9, 2020, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/12/09/fidelity-digital-to-accept-bitcoin-collateral-on-cash-loans-for-institutions/