Fidelity’s digital currency platform goes live

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Fidelity Digital Assets, a new digital currency wing created by the investing giant Fidelity, is now live. According to the announcement on March 8, the company plans to work with a small number of selected clients.

By using the initial clients, Fidelity explained they would be able to finalize on the testing and process refinement before providing these services to a broader set of eligible institutions.

In a tweet, the company stated, “We are live with a select group of eligible clients and will continue rolling out slowly. Our solutions are focused on the needs of hedge funds, family offices, pensions, endowments, other institutional investors.”

While speaking to CNBC last week, Tom Jessop, head at Fidelity Digital Assets stated that the company is still working on various parts of the platform before it can be fully functional. He explained that while some users have been on the platform since January, many would have to wait until September as it “really depends on the facts and circumstances of the individual client.”

The company had announced earlier this year in January that the platform was in its final testing stages. It added that since the first announcement in October 2018, it has been developing the platform to meet custody standards and institutional trading.

Jessop also added that Fidelity’s operations were not affected by the bear market of last year. He added that people who started a crypto fund at the height of the market, are probably hurting right now.

According to Jessop, institutional interest in cryptocurrencies continues to grow in spite of the bear market. He believes the market should be encouraged now, as they were when the prices were high.

Last week, Jessop affirmed that the company might take time to offer Ethereum (ETH) support. According to reports, the delay is due to the Constantinople update. Fidelity feels it would be best to wait a bit after the recent change in code. He explained that the decision not to add ETH is that they see it as a duty to protect the customers, mainly because adding ETH could make their system vulnerable to attacks.