Fidelity’s 34 million retail investors can buy Bitcoin and Ethereum with no commission. Fidelity has also started adopting cryptocurrencies in their retirement plans.
Investment giant Fidelity appears to have finally allowed its retail investors to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum. The $4.5 trillion asset manager has set up an early access waiting list for users to trade the two assets, giving potential crypto access to 34 million investors.
Dubbed Fidelity Crypto, the service will also provide investors with beginner-friendly educational resources about the crypto industry. Users can trade stocks within the same app. Though only Bitcoin and Ethereum will be offered at first, other digital assets will also be considered in the future. It is unclear when the product will be launched. The site says trades are “commission free”. However, it noted that Fidelity charges a spread of up to 1% based on the difference between the user’s cryptocurrency purchase price and the price at which the order is filled.
Fidelity Digital Assets — the cryptocurrency-focused division of the asset management firm — began offering bitcoin to institutions in 2018. Most recently, it opened an Ethereum institutional trading desk last month. It will now also support Fidelity Crypto.
Fidelity’s retail offering comes less than two weeks after Fidelity agency president Michael Durbin said he sees more crypto space in consumers’ portfolios. Rumors of the offer surfaced in September when sources contacted by The Wall Street Journal said Fidelity was weighing plans for the matter. Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz shared the same rumors at the time.
Fidelity Rolling Out Cryptocurrencies in its Retirement Plan
The asset management company added that some of its 401(k) retirement plans have started adding Bitcoin to their investment menus. Similarly, ForUsAll, a San Francisco-based 401(k) provider, said about eight weeks ago that 50 of its 550 customers had started investing employees’ retirement savings in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
When Fidelity first announced Bitcoin for retirement in April, it said the product was in high demand among employers and employees alike. Other 401(k) providers, including Vanguard Group, Alight Solutions LLC, and T. Rowe Price Group Inc, have no similar plans, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In contrast, they see a lack of corporate demand and an unclear regulatory environment around digital assets.
However, ForUsAll CEO David Ramirez noted that his company has a greater need for digital assets. Of the 2,500 ForUsAll employees eligible to invest through such a program, 300 do, he said.
