Bitcoin Bear Market got Institutional Investors’ interest On its Transformative Potential

Interesting times are ahead as institutional players acknowledge the power of Bitcoin and crypto despite the crypto market crash. With the focus on establishing a standard for the trading venue and custody platform, these players are working on creating a “trusted platform.”

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The Potential of Bitcoin & Crypto can’t be Ignored

While Bitcoin crashed over 80 percent in 2018, crypto market attracted institutional interest. In a recently posted video, TD Ameritrade Manager of Trading Strategy Shawn Cruz said that TDA clients’ interest in Bitcoin has rekindled with the drop in Bitcoin price below $4k.

“At TD Ameritrade, we offer Bitcoin futures trading for our clients. We saw them get very interested when we volume spiked when it was around $10,000. On this pullback lower, there really wasn’t much activity from our client base. But now that we’re getting down to this 3 or $4,000 price level on Bitcoin, we’re starting to see our clients become more interested in trading Bitcoin again. So I think it’s going to be interesting to see what Bitcoin does from here.”

Fidelity Investments also stated that they do realize Bitcoin is not the “first form of digital cash” but “we recognize the transformative potential it has created.”

In about mid-January, Adena Friedman, the CEO of Nasdaq had also acknowledged the potential of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in one segment of her LinkedIn post titled, “Crypto Currencies Could Still Be a Global Currency of the Future.”

“The invention itself is a tremendous demonstration of genius and creativity, and it deserves an opportunity to find a sustainable future in our economy.”  

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Setting Standards for a Trusting Platform

Just recently, it has been also found that Fidelity Investments has reportedly set March the launch date for its Bitcoin custody service.

Now, one of the largest asset managers with $2.46 trillion assets under management, Fidelity Investment is making further progress into the cryptocurrencies space since it made the initial announcement in October. In its latest announcement, the firm shared,

“We have continued to build the technical and operational capabilities needed for securing, trading and supporting digital assets with the exacting oversight required by institutional investors.”

The company is its final testing while “currently serving a select set of eligible clients as we continue to build our initial solutions.” The initial clients of the firm are part of the final testing phase that will enable the company to provide these services to “a broader set of eligible institutions.”

With big institutions at play, a great deal of time is invested in the areas of product, operations, risk, and compliance as Fidelity is actively working on adapting existing operational processes, refine the policies and procedures and  “to set new benchmarks for this aspect of cryptographic and blockchain-based finance.”

The company is working on establishing a standard that is “expected from Fidelity” as the clients it is in conversation with have communicated the need for a “trusted platform provider in order to engage with digital assets in a meaningful way.”

Recently, Bakkt has also shared they are on a hiring spree while making its first acquisition while awaiting regulatory approval from the authorities.