Fidelity Digital Assets, the subsidiary of financial services giant Fidelity Investments, plans to double its staff this year to meet growing demand for crypto trading from institutional investors, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Tuesday.
- The company plans to hire 110 people in technical roles and recruit engineers and developers with blockchain experience, President Tom Jessop said, according to the report.
- The expanded staff will be used to build infrastructure to offer trading in Ether. Fidelity Digital Assets has previously only supported bitcoin (BTC).
- The company plans to offer faster transactions and 24-hour trading support, as well as compliance and tax reporting tools.
- Increasing the size of its tech team and providing support for Ether (ETH) would be a sign of Fidelity's continued intention to expand into the crypto industry.
- The financial services firm, with more than $4.5 trillion in assets under management, said last month that it will allow investors to deposit bitcoin into their 401(k) retirement accounts later this year.
- Fidelity Digital Assets now has about 400 clients, including investment advisors, hedge funds and asset managers, said head of product Terrence Dempsey, according to the WSJ report.
- The company did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment.