Bitcoin is about to become 10 years old this year. It is a big deal considering how far it has gone. And though Bitcoin today is now mainstream, there are still a good number of issues surrounding Bitcoin that has to be addressed. For instance, you have the price of its transactions, not to mention the speed of its transactions. But despite all of these things, Bitcoin has come a long way since 2008.
Though it has reached an all-time high of near $20,000 in 2017 and significantly dropped in value in the past months, it is now becoming stable. It only means that people have made use of Bitcoin as a store of value or perhaps, people are waiting for the next bull run to happen. And though institutional investors are slowly working its way towards cryptocurrencies, it seems that the entry of Fidelity and Bakkt in the picture are good signs for the market.
According to Tom Jessop who is the president of Fidelity Digital Asset Services, he says that he is taking crypto to the next level. According to him, he is going to enhance the sector and provide a secure Bitcoin custody solution that can attract institutional investors.
Removing the Barrier
In Laura Shin’s podcast, she interviewed the president of Digital Asset Services and discussed how to bring Bitcoin and crypto market to a higher level. He was asked if Fidelity is going to have its own crypto exchange. Jessop replied that he believes that the crypto exchanges are already doing a good job and Fidelity wants to focus more on providing custody services for institutional investors.
He believes that one of the things that is stopping the current market is the fact that service providers need pre-funded accounts. This is something that Fidelity is looking to solve. What it is doing is to build a traditional investment platform. Here, the users can execute trades on different exchanges.
The Future of Crypto?
The future of crypto is bright according to Jessop and Shin in their podcast. According to Jessop, the problem that investors have today is that there is the lack of custody solution and they also find it a bit tedious to carry out trades.
What Fidelity is going to provide is a cold storage solution. And this is something that Fidelity has been known for as it managed more than $7 trillion in assets. They’ve gained the reputation of having security in the services that they offer. Jessop mentioned that “we know how to manage security at scale”.
Security is something that can attract institutional investors. Nowadays, there are a lot of crypto exchanges that have been hacked mainly because of their practice to just leave the funds online. Coincheck has lost $500 million in the process.
For Jessop, he believes that there will be an increase in the number of retail and institutional investors as the market matures. He points out that hedge fund managers, family offices, and emerging market analysts are all into creating different crypto products and instruments. And these are things that can move the industry forward.
