Fidelity will allow clients to check their cryptocurrency balance right from the firm’s website. However, customers will need to have their digital currency stored on Coinbase, one of the top Bitcoin exchange sites. Fidelity is only one of the few major investment companies that have chosen to integrate Bitcoin into their website.
The integration is expected to take place in the second or third quarter of this year. Employees will be the first ones to test it out, and then it will roll out to Fidelity’s clients.
Abigail Johnson, Fidelity’s Chief Executive, said she loves Bitcoin and blockchain technology. She said this is what the future holds and that they have built proofs of concepts that accept Bitcoin micro-transactions. She went on to say that they have set up a small Bitcoin mining operations, just so the company can learn about it.
Abby Johnson, CEO of @Fidelity, talks human touch, bitcoin vikings and living in the matrix. #consensus2017 pic.twitter.com/d3oXKWuvdk
— CoinDesk (@coindesk) May 23, 2017
Fidelity employees can use Bitcoin to pay for their lunch at the corporate cafeteria in Boston. The company has also received over $5 million worth of Bitcoin donations last year. The company’s charity arm started to accept Bitcoin donations back in 2015.
Johnson made the announcement at a recent Blockchain conference. Although she praised Bitcoin, she did talk about the difficulties that the digital currency poses to the financial world. She said that many companies in the financial sector has given up on Bitcoin, but she was still a believer in it.
