Fidelity Digital Assets expands crypto services to investors in Asia
Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS), the crypto subsidiary of asset manager Fidelity Investments partnered with the regulated Singapore-based investment manager, Stack Funds, to facilitate the increasing demand in cryptocurrencies among Asian investors with Stack Funds providing its clients with access to custody services at FDAS.
Stating that this new partnership would help the company understand investor demand in Asia, head of Fidelity Digital Assets Europe, Christopher Tyrer said:
There is a critical need for platforms which have a deep understanding of what local and regional investors are looking for [that] has historically been lacking in the digital asset space.
According to a report, Stack Funds said that its custodied assets will be subject to monthly audits and will provide investor protections such as insurance coverage as well as weekly contributions and redemptions.
A month after the Boston based firm received a green light to operate in New York from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the digital assets service provider launched a branch in the UK to cater to European investors, in December 2019.
In terms of meeting crypto-related demand in Asia, there have been other companies as well that have made their services available to the region. In fact, the New York-based crypto exchange Gemini said early this month that it would expand to the Asia-Pacific region by appointing a former executive from Morgan Stanley, as Gemini’s chief compliance officer of the APAC region.
In September this year, a major blockchain analyzing firm Chainalysis had also opened its new offices in Tokyo and Singapore. Moreover, in a study of its own Chainalysis had found that East Asia was the world’s largest cryptocurrency market, accounting for 31% of all cryptocurrency transacted between June 2019 and July 2020.