As you likely well know, Bitcoin (BTC) hasn’t been doing too hot as of late, losing 45% of its year-to-date high of $14,000.
Despite this unfortunate downturn, which came after many were calling for Bitcoin to “moon,” many remained committed to the cryptocurrency vision.
Fidelity Expands Bitcoin Operations
Revealed in a report published by the Financial Times on Friday morning, Fidelity Investments — one of the world’s largest financial services giant that has long dabbled in Bitcoin — revealed that it is ramping up its cryptocurrency operations.
Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS), the firm’s cryptocurrency division launched late in 2018 (a year ago now), is “now engaged in a full rollout of its custody and trading services for digital assets,” the report noted citing Fidelity’s pro-Bitcoin CEO, Abigail Johnson.
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It isn’t clear to what extent this full rollout is taking place. But, considering FDAS was only serving a select set of clients for much of 2019, this new report may imply that the firm may be looking to offer Bitcoin custody and trading solutions for its thousands of institutional clients that have billions, even trillions under management.
We Don’t Need Institutions Where We’re Going
While much of this industry’s focus has been on institutions, it is important to note that this subset of investors isn’t the end all and be all of cryptocurrency. Far from, really.
Related Reading: Crypto Fund Manager: Few Family Offices Actually Own Bitcoin Directly
Speaking to CNBC’s “Power Lunch” panel last week, Lou Kerner, a partner at fund Crypto Oracle and a former Goldman Sachs analyst, argued that Bitcoin doesn’t need institutions to succeed and rocket higher, citing the fact that a majority of the asset’s adoption has been caused by people like you or me, not bankers.
Kerner even went as far as to say that the institutions will be the followers in this market, not the trailblazers like they normally are.
He isn’t kidding. An analysis from Twitter user “BitcoinEconomics” recently found that Bitcoin’s 2017 bull run from $1,000 to $20,000 “was caused by retail buyers”, as made evident by the growth in the holdings of addresses with small holdings.
Yet, Kerner in the CNBC interview did admit near the end of the segment that institutions will eventually make a true foray into this market, claiming they will be attracted to cryptocurrencies like apples are attracted to the ground due to gravity.
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