Fidelity Establishes New Digital Asset Business to Support Investors

Fidelity Investments®, a financial services firm, announced that it is establishing a new entity to serve European institutions investing in digital assets. Fidelity Digital Assets, Ltd. will offer access to enterprise-quality custody and trade execution services for digital assets to investors such as hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries. This business builds upon the company’s 2018 launch of Fidelity Digital Asset Services, LLC (“Fidelity Digital Assets℠”), a New York state-chartered limited liability trust company that already provides these services to U.S.-based institutional investors.

“Since launching Fidelity Digital Assets in the U.S. over a year ago, we’ve seen significant interest and engagement by the institutional community, which show no signs of slowing,” said Tom Jessop, head of Corporate Business Development for Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Digital Assets℠. “We’re also encouraged by continued corporate and venture investment in market infrastructure companies as well as the entry of traditional exchanges into the digital assets ecosystem. These and other market indicators, alongside interest expressed from U.K. and European client prospects, indicate a market with increasing potential which gives us the confidence to expand the digital assets business geographically.”

Fidelity Digital Assets, Ltd. will provide access to services that are considered foundational for institutions engaging with digital assets, and essential building blocks for advancing digital asset investing.

To support business development across the region, Fidelity has named Chris Tyrer as Head of Fidelity Digital Assets in Europe. Prior to joining Fidelity, Tyrer served as a managing director at Barclays Investment Bank, leading its digital assets project, which examined the market opportunities for the firm. He has also served as Global Head of Commodities Trading for Barclays following a long career in traditional financial markets.

Tyrer will manage the European business for Fidelity Digital Assets, Ltd. and will lead client service activity in the region.

“The demand we’ve seen for Fidelity’s digital asset custody and trade execution services has been borderless, and we’re scaling our business to operate in a variety of jurisdictions to support this industry for the long-term,” said Tyrer. “In doing so, we’re building on the commitment to make digitally-native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to institutional investors.”