Fidelity Digital Assets expands crypto trading product amid business influx

Quick Take

  • Fidelity Digital Assets has expanding its trading platform to including crypto exchange ErisX
  • The move comes as Fidelity sees a uptick in business amid the coronavirus market anxiety

The cryptocurrency unit of $8.3 trillion asset management giant Fidelity is expanding the range of its offering.

The move comes as its experiences record trading days while coronavirus anxiety rattles global markets. The Boston-based venture offers clients a platform on which they can store and trade bitcoin across various venues.

To date, those venues have only included market-making trading firms, which internally match orders routed from Fidelity Digital Assets. In a press statement shared with The Block, Chicago-based ErisX said that Fidelity would now be able to route orders to its marketplace.

"ErisX is the first exchange that Fidelity Digital Assets has onboarded," a spokeswoman for Fidelity told The Block in an email. Fidelity is an equity investor in the Chicago-based firm. ErisX told The Block that it is still working on other integrations with large brokers, including Wedbush Securities and TDAmeritrade. 

"We believe in the crypto ethos of accessibility to all on equal terms and about leveling the playing field for everyone," said Thomas Chippas, CEO of ErisX. 

The addition of ErisX to Fidelity's platform comes at a time when the firm has been experiencing a surge in its business, according to people familiar with the matter. Fidelity has been fielding an increase in inbounds from pension funds, family offices, and macro global hedge funds as investors seek new investment opportunities amidst the ongoing coronavirus crisis. 

"From a trading perspective, we continue to onboard new clients every month and are seeing significant pipeline growth," a spokeswoman for Fidelity said. "And in recent weeks, we've seen more momentum across our business, for example, discussions around store of value and digital gold are resonating more with investors."

It's a striking development, considering bitcoin has not been acting either as a safe haven or uncorrelated asset, moving in lockstep with the broader stock market. As markets whipsawed in March, bitcoin showed its strongest correlation to the U.S. stock market since January 2019.

 


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About Author

Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].