Fidelity Plans Huge Push in Digital Assets Space With 100 New Hires

Investment manager Fidelity Investments is hiring 100 new people for its digital assets unit. Suggesting that the firm wants to build its crypto business in the bear market.

Bloomberg first reported the recruitment exercise. Stating that the new hires will increase the number of employees in Fidelity Digital Assets to about 500 by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

With more than $10.3 trillion in assets under management, Fidelity is one of the biggest investment managers in the world. However, it has shown significant interest in digital assets over the past few years. Establishing a digital assets unit in 2018.

Pro-Crypto Moves Continue

Since then, the unit has been one of the major institutional advocates for digital assets. And has been pushing the drive for adoption. It started by offering institutional clients access to digital assets trading and custody. 

Earlier this year, Fidelity announced plans to give participants in its 401(k) plan the chance to invest part of their retirement savings into Bitcoin.

However, the announcement generated strong reactions from the Department of Labor and some members of Congress.

Meanwhile, Fidelity Digital Asset also launched two exchange-traded funds in April to track companies in the crypto sector and metaverse.

Fidelity Beefs up Workforce

It is not surprising that Fidelity is taking advantage of the bear market to beef up its staff.

According to the Bloomberg report, it is adding employees to divisions such as client services, business development, operations, technology, compliance, marketing, and business development.

A source familiar with the decision added that the hires would spread across regional offices of the unit in New York, Dublin, Boston, and London.

The current bear market offers the company a perfect opportunity to get talented professionals easily. As several crypto-focused firms have been forced to downsize their workforce.

While some employees lost their jobs due to the bankruptcy of crypto-focused companies, thousands of others have been laid off.

However, Fidelity’s decision to hire now also suggests the level of conviction it has in the crypto space, given that over $2 trillion has been wiped off the market cap since the peak late last year.

For Be[In]Crypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here