In a blog post on January 31st, American financial services giant Fidelity said that its cryptocurrency trading and custody platform is in the “final testing and process refinement periods.”
As per the announcement, Fidelity is currently providing services to a small, select group of clients while it continues to build the platform’s infrastructure.
The farm state, “Our initial clients, are an important part of our final testing and process refinement periods, which will eventually enable us to provide these services to a broader set of eligible institutions.”
Fidelity in October 2018 had announced the development of a crypto platform with the launch of a new company, Fidelity Digital Asset Services. Fidelity then said that the new company would offer custody and trade execution services for digital assets, targeting institutional investors like “hedge funds, family offices, and market intermediaries,” and would not, for now, be open to retail investors.
In 31st January announcement, Fidelity notes that its development team has been working with auditors in order to ensure regulatory compliance and “adapt existing operational processes” to the new cryptocurrency-oriented platform.
Custody services are commonplace in the conventional finance sector, and offer investors a place to store assets like money, securities, and commodities like gold and diamonds so that they are not lost or stolen. Custody services differ from banks in which they are not allowed to use the stored assets for their own gain. Major financial firms like JPMorgan, BNY Mellon and Northern Trust offer custody services.
As per some sources, Fidelity may launch the crypto custodial service by March 2019.