Fidelity, the $2.3 trillion investment giant, is testing out a new cryptocurrency service
(Abigail Johnson, CEO of Fidelity.Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Fidelity is testing out a new service to help make life easier for its clients who invest in cryptocurrencies.
The $2.3 trillion investor announced on Wednesday a partnership between its Fidelity Labs, the firm's innovation center, and Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange serving nearly 9 million customers.
As part of the partnership, Coinbase users will be able to view their bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin holdings alongside their other accounts in their Fidelity Portfolio.
The company told Business Insider it's not entirely sure how many of its users will benefit from the service, but that's the whole point of the trial.
"We are trying to create the best customer experience," Hadley Stern, managing director at Fidelity Labs, told Business Insider."When we allowed customers to donate bitcoin to our charitable fund we were unsure about how many people would do it, but it played out well."
Donations made in bitcoin to Fidelity Charitable, a $16 billion donor-advised philanthropic fund, grew to about $9 million in the first half of 2017. That's about $2 million more than what bitcoin donors contributed in all of 2016.
Fidelity's CEO Abigail Johnson is a bitcoin enthusiast. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson voiced her support of the cryptocurrency in a speech at a conference hosted by CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency news site.
“Some of you might be wondering: Why am I here today?” Johnson said, according to the Journal."I’m here because I love this stuff... all that the future might hold.”
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