Wall Street's New Channel to the Cryptocurrency Market! Asset Management Giant Fidelity Launches Bitcoin Fund

Fidelity Investments has launched its first Bitcoin fund, a passive fund that tracks the price of Bitcoin and is only available to qualified institutional investors in the traditional financial markets. According to documents filed with the SEC, the minimum investment amount for this fund is $100,000.

Bitcoin Fund

According to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Fidelity Investments, one of the world's fourth-largest mutual fund companies, has launched a passive fund to track the price of Bitcoin for institutional investors – the Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I. This fund is managed by Fidelity Digital Assets (FDAS), a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. As reported by Bloomberg here, the fund is only available to qualified investors such as family offices and registered investment advisers, with a minimum investment of $100,000 per investor.

In an email to Bloomberg, Fidelity stated:

“Fidelity has made a long-term commitment to the future of blockchain technology to make it easier for investors to access digital assets such as Bitcoin.”

Starting a Wave of Emulation?

From certain data, it can be observed that investors in mainstream markets this year are showing increasing interest in cryptocurrency financial products. For example, Grayscale's cryptocurrency trust funds attracted over $900 million in the second quarter of 2020, nearly double the high point in the first quarter. The total assets managed by the company also surpassed $4 billion. However, due to concerns about regulation and potential illicit activities in the cryptocurrency market, most banks or financial institutions are reluctant to launch related products. Therefore, Fidelity's introduction of cryptocurrency financial products to traditional financial markets is quite exciting news for those who have been waiting for mainstream Wall Street institutions to enter the market.

If Fidelity's Bitcoin fund successfully attracts a large amount of capital, will other financial institutions follow suit and launch similar products upon seeing strong market demand? This is something to look forward to.