Fidelity Considering Offering Crypto Trading to Brokerage Customers: Report

Financial services giant Fidelity is contemplating whether to let individual brokerage customers trade bitcoin (BTC), according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the situation.

This potential move follows BlackRock (BLK) partnering with Coinbase (COIN) to offer crypto trading to its institutional customers, a sign Wall Street continues to be attracted by crypto despite the horrible year for digital currency markets.

Earlier this year, Fidelity announced plans to allow corporate clients to add bitcoin to the 401(k) plans it manages for them. However, the plan has drawn criticism from the U.S. Labor Department and from multiple U.S. senators.

Fidelity has more than 34.4 million individual brokerage accounts, according to the report.

Mike Novogratz, CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy, said during a panel discussion at the SALT New York conference that he had heard Fidelity was moving to offer crypto to retail customers. The Monday panel was about institutional investment in the digital asset space.

"A bird has told me, a little bird in my ear, that Fidelity is going to shift their retail customers into crypto soon enough," Novogratz said. "I hope that bird is right."

Fidelity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: Fidelity’s Abby Johnson Reaffirms Crypto Commitment in Bear Market

UPDATE (Sept. 12, 2022 19:54 UTC): Added comment from Mike Novogratz and Fidelity's non-response.