Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have swung wildly this week as the crypto market undergoes a radical shift—sparking a game-changing warning.
The bitcoin price crashed under $20,000 per bitcoin as traders brace for a Federal Reserve bombshell while the ethereum price has lost almost 20% in the aftermath of its long-awaited upgrade (which some think could play havoc with crypto market dynamics). Other top ten cryptocurrencies, including BNB, XRP, solana, cardano and dogecoin, have also lost ground as regulators circle the crypto market.
Now, after the world’s largest asset manager Blackrock “opened the floodgates for institutions to access bitcoin,” reports have emerged that investment giant Fidelity is weighing offering bitcoin trading services to its 34.4 million retail investor base.
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Bitcoin was this week rocked by news $10 trillion asset manager Fidelity is gearing up to offer … [+]
Fidelity Investments, which boasts $9.9 trillion in assets under administration as of June this year and began mining bitcoin as far back as 2015, is considering opening up the bitcoin and crypto market to its 34.4 million brokerage accounts, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal this week.
“After one domino falls, the rest will come. This is exactly the type of confirmation that asset managers need to enter the crypto space themselves,” Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at London-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, said in emailed comments, adding the move shows Fidelity’s “belief in bitcoin’s longevity.”
Earlier this year, Fidelity sent ripples through the crypto market when it said it would begin allowing its 401(k) retirement savings account holders to invest directly into bitcoin, sparking a backlash from regulators and lawmakers. Influential senator Elizabeth Warren called the plan “immensely troubling,” warning bitcoin could be too risky an investment for retirement savers, while the Labor Department’s acting assistant secretary said he had “grave concerns.”
News of Fidelity’s latest potential bitcoin support was teased by bitcoin bull and Galaxy Digital chief executive Mike Novogratz who said, “we are seeing this institutional march” toward bitcoin, it was reported by the WSJ.
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The bitcoin price has bounced around $20,000 per bitcoin this last month as the bulls and bears … [+]
“A bird told me, a little bird in my ear, told me Fidelity is going to shift its retail customers into crypto soon enough,” Novogratz said on stage at the Salt conference in New York. “I hope that bird is right.”
Last week, the chief executive of crypto trading platform Eight Global, Michaël van de Poppe, said he expected Fidelity to launch bitcoin trading for retail customers in November. “The adoption grows and it accelerates,” he posted to Twitter.
In 2021, Fidelity global macro director Jurrien Timmer gave his backing to bitcoin, saying it had a “unique advantage over gold.”
“Bitcoin is gaining credibility, and as a digital analog of gold but with greater convexity, my guess is that bitcoin will, over time, take more market share from gold,” Timmer wrote.
