$2.1 Trillion Fund Management Firm Fidelity Launching Bitcoin Custody in Q1 of 2019

Fidelity Investments, the world's fifth largest asset managers with $2.5 trillion under management, is launching a Bitcoin custodial product aimed at institutional investors to expand its "Digital Asset" service.

Scheduled for a March 2019 launch, the offering comes after Fidelity announced support for cryptocurrencies in 2018 and introduced trading services for accredited firms and family offices.

Currently, Wall Street is devoid of a trusted name for facilitating cryptocurrency trading, custody, or wallet services-but firms like Fidelity are looking to spearhead development in this regard.

In a statement, the company noted a "Select set" of clients are currently offered Fidelity's custodial services, via its "Digital Assets" subsidiary and has been a proponent for digital currencies, unlike some Wall Street rivals.

"For institutions, the most pressing unanswered question is how-if they choose to hold digital assets for their customers-these assets will be secured. The answer is that full-service institutional custody solutions are needed- solutions as equally robust as those provided for traditional assets."

The presence of traditional companies building a "Trusted" name for cryptocurrencies is somewhat contradictory-digital assets were, after all, created to decouple money from outside institutions.

While asset safekeeping was optional for investors until the early 1900s, the U.S. stock market crisis of 1929 compelled the public to turn towards banks and big-name financial companies to protect their investments, through mechanisms such as share certificates.

Together, over trillions of dollars of customer assets are managed by a few hundred players in a largely opaque system.

Despite a decentralized and global financial system already operational in the form Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies, a lack of meaningful traction for the innovations suggest trusted entities are still required-mainly to derisk ownership of holding private keys.

Millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies have been stolen from the industry's biggest exchanges, like Mt.Gox, Bitfinex, and CoinCheck.