Fidelity Digital To Offer Bitcoin Collateral Cash Loans In Association With BlockFi

Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments one of the leading financial service providers, announced that they would offer cash loans against bitcoin collateral to its institutional clients in a press release on Wednesday. The financial service provider would offer these loans in association with blockchain startup Block-fi who would act as a risk manager for loans. Block-Fi would offer 60% in cash of the total amount of bitcoin collaterized in the loan.

Fidelity Digital Assets is excited to enter the digital asset financing space with our new collateral agent capabilities. Clients can now pledge bitcoin as collateral against cash loan agreements managed by @BlockFi.

Read the full press release: https://t.co/5OdHtOU7Uh

— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) December 9, 2020

Fidelity Investments would hold the collaterized bitcoin under their management and belive the collaterized bitcoin cash loan would attract many institutional clients which include hedge funds, crypto miners, and over-the-counter trading desks. Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets belive the rise of bitcoin has drawn a lot of institutional interest and many clients hold a portion of their portfolio in bitcoin. Thus, this offering from Fidelity would allow them to cash-in on their asset without selling it.

Fidelity See Bitcoin as a Potential Future Market of Interest

Fidelity’s decision to offer a Bitcoin collaterized cash loan comes in the wake of soaring bitcoin demand by institutional clients of many hedge fund and asset managers. This is evident from the asset manager survey conducted earlier this year for where 36% of the respondets held bitcoin in their portfolio while 60% expressed interest in buying the top cryptocurrency. The president of the Fidelity Digital Asset belive that holding Bitcoin to back loans is “a foundational capability.”

Christine Sandler, head of Sales and Marketing for Fidelity Digital Asset said the decision to create a Bitcoin collaterized loan was based on growing demand. He explained,

“The business and market momentum we’ve seen this year have reinforced our belief that institutional investors are looking for a more comprehensive offering in the digital assets space, and we look forward to continuing to evolve our platform to meet their needs and deliver even greater value to our clients,”

Fidelity Digital Assets has become the latest member of the ‘Bitcoin Institutional Club’ which seems to be growing with each passing day. The institutional influx has given bitcoin a mammoth exposure which can lead to a global market sooner than later.