Fidelity Digital Asset Services to Hire 110 With Blockchain, Crypto Skills

Fidelity Digital Asset Services, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments launched in 2018 so the company could offer institutional investors access to cryptocurrency markets, plans to double its workforce to 220, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (May 31).

The Journal noted that Fidelity has disclosed the plans during what has been a volatile period for cryptocurrencies.

Among workers Fidelity plans to hire, according to the Journal, are engineers and developers with experience working in blockchain. The paper quoted Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, as having said the company also will hire about 100 customer-service specialists who will focus on customers’ cryptocurrency needs.

The cryptocurrency at the center of Fidelity’s efforts is ether, the Journal reported, which is run on the Ethereum network. Ether can be used to store and trade bitcoin.

Jessop, according to the Journal, said Fidelity will build out a cloud-based network that will offer robust security and 24-hour trading.

“We’re trying not to focus on the downturns and focus on some of the long-term indicators,” including demand from clients, the Journal quoted Jessop as having said. “We are trying to build infrastructure for the future because we measure success over years and decades, not weeks and months.”

Jessop reportedly told the Journal that acquisition of new clients has slowed as cryptocurrency prices have declined.

The Journal quoted the product head for Fidelity Digital Assets, Terrence Dempsey, as having said the operation’s 400 clients include asset managers, hedge funds and investment advisers.

Fidelity announced in April that it would let customers saving for retirement put 401(k) assets in cryptocurrencies. The initiative drew immediate expressions of concern from regulators.

See also: Labor Dept Has ‘Grave Concerns’ About Fidelity Bitcoin Plan

“We have grave concerns with what Fidelity has done,”  Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary of the federal Employee Benefits Security Administration, reportedly told the Wall Street Journal.

Fidelity responded in a prepared statement calling the Bitcoin plan a sign of “the firm’s continued commitment to evolving and broadening its digital assets offerings amidst steadily growing demand for digital assets across investor segments, and we believe that this technology and digital assets will represent a large part of the financial industry’s future.”