Fidelity Seeks SEC Approval For A Bitcoin Index Fund

Fidelity Investments is coming up with a new fund specifically for Bitcoin.

What Happened: The financial services company filed a Form D notice with the SEC and now awaits approval from the regulator.

The newly incorporated pooled investment fund, Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I, LP, will be based out of Fidelity’s Boston headquarters.

Fidelity manages over $8.3 trillion customer funds, according to Forbes, and might now be expanding its portfolio to include Bitcoin as well.

In 2019, its subsidiary Fidelity Digital Assets was approved by the New York Department of Financial Services to engaged in cryptocurrency-related businesses.

In January this year, Fidelity Digital Assets announced that it would extend cryptocurrency custody support to Nickel Digital Asset Management – a United Kingdom based investment company that invests in virtual assets.

Why It Matters: The bitcoin-only fund will manage the portfolio for qualified purchasers with a minimum investment value pegged at $100,000. The company plans to handle the Bitcoin fund through a new unit called Fidelity Digital Funds, according to a Bloomberg report.

In a survey published in June 2020 spanning 800 institutional investors in the US and Europe, almost 60% of the respondents claimed that they would include digital assets in their portfolio and 91% were open to cryptocurrency exposure.

Price Action: Bitcoin traded 0.23% higher at $11,401.04 at press time early Thursday.

Photo courtesy: Marco Verch via Flickr