- Fidelity Investments is considering allowing individual investors to purchase bitcoin.
- Investors will be able to buy property through the company’s online brokerage.
- Fidelity has over 34 million individual investors on its platform.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Fidelity Investments is reportedly considering allowing individual investors to invest in bitcoin on its brokerage platform.
The pro-Bitcoin financial institution previously published an investor report titled Bitcoin First, which established why investors should consider investing in bitcoin before any other digital asset. Now, Fidelity wants to open this investment vehicle up to its more than 34 million individual investors.
In 2018, Fidelity created a platform that allowed institutional investors and hedge funds to trade bitcoin, and most recently, the company partnered with Microstrategy to launch its bitcoin 401(k).
Thus, while Fidelity has shown a consistent pro-Bitcoin focus for its institutional-grade investors, the 401(k) product has allowed the financial giant to still cater to a larger clientele, while putting bitcoin in the hands of daily workers. has been put in.
However, this persistent support for bitcoin has attracted unwanted attention from legislators. Last July, an open letter from staunch bitcoin opponents condemned Fidelity for offering its 401(k) product.
In fact, one particular passage from the letter reveals how some US legislators feel about offering bitcoin to the working class:
“This begs the question: when saving for retirement is already a challenge for so many Americans, why would Fidelity allow those who might be exposed to untapped, highly volatile assets like bitcoin?”
Despite the adoption of bitcoin as both a store-of-value and a viable currency, it is clear that legislators and legacy institutions are still struggling to understand or accept bitcoin. However, one could argue that Fidelity is ignoring the noise of the ecosystem and continues to deliver innovative service offerings.