As institutional investors’ demand for cryptocurrency services remains strong, Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of asset management giant Fidelity Digital Assets, plans to increase the number of employees by approximately 70%.

Tom Jessop, President of Fidelity Digital Assets, said in an interview that the company plans to add about 100 technical and operational staff in Dublin, Boston and Salt Lake City. He said that these employees will help the company develop new products and expand to cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.

Jessop believes that last year was “a truly breakthrough year for the field, because when the new coronavirus pandemic began, people’s interest in Bitcoin accelerated”. Earlier this year, Bitcoin set a record of more than $63,000, and other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, also rose to record highs, and then fell by about half in recent weeks. So far, Fidelity Digital has only provided custody, trading and other services for Bitcoin.

Jessop pointed out, “We have seen more interest in Ethereum, so we want to stay ahead of this demand.”

He said that Fidelity Digital will also promote the provision of transaction services for most of the week. Cryptocurrencies can be traded all day, every day, unlike most financial markets that close in the afternoon and weekends. “We want to be in a place where we work full-time most of the week.”

As cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance gain more mainstream recognition, funds continue to flow into this field to provide funding for start-ups and new ways of conducting traditional financial transactions.

According to data from data provider PitchBook, venture capital funds have invested more than $17 billion in blockchain-based projects this year. This is the year with the most funds raised in any year so far, and it is almost equal to the sum of the total funds raised in previous years. The financing companies include Chainalysis, Blockdaemon, Coin Metrics, Paxos Trust Co., Alchemy and Digital Asset Holdings LLC.

In addition to holding and trading Bitcoin, Fidelity Digital has also partnered with blockchain startup BlockFi Inc to allow its institutional clients to use Bitcoin as collateral for cash loans.

Jessop stated that institutional investors’ desire to access Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies is on the rise. Fidelity Digital’s first customers are often family offices and hedge funds. It is now expanding to include retirement consultants and companies that want to use cryptocurrency as an asset class.

“Bitcoin has become the entrance to many institutions. It has really opened a window now to let people understand what else is happening in the field.” He said a major shift is the “diversity of interest from new and existing customers.”

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