Fidelity Deepens Crypto Push With 100 More Hires for Unit

Emily Nicolle, Bloomberg News

A pedestrian passes a Fidelity Investments branch in New York, U.S., on Monday, April 30, 2012. Calls for a general strike with no work, no school, no banking and no shopping have sprung up on websites in Toronto, Barcelona, London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, among hundreds of cities in North America, Europe and Asia. Photograph: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images , Bloomberg via Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- Fidelity Investments is hiring an additional 100 people for its digital assets unit, stepping up an expansion that started in May and taking advantage of turmoil among crypto firms to lure talent.

The new round of hiring will bring Fidelity Digital Assets’s headcount to roughly 500 by the end of next year’s first quarter, according to a company representative. The division had already doubled its workforce since late May, when it announced plans to hire tech and customer service staff.

Fidelity Digital Assets is adding staff in client services, operations, technology, business development, marketing and compliance, the person said. Hires will be spread across several regions, with Fidelity’s existing crypto team based in locations including Boston, New York, London and Dublin.

The hires come as the crypto industry weathers a period of significant turnover, with companies like Crypto.com, Coinbase Global Inc. and BlockFi Inc. collectively laying off thousands of employees this year. That’s opened a fresh supply of crypto talent for traditional financial companies, who are also rehiring staff who had decamped for digital-asset firms.

Fidelity’s expansion underscores how large financial institutions haven’t been deterred by a $2 trillion meltdown in cryptocurrencies since the market peaked almost a year ago.

Read more: Spat Out by Crypto, Tech Staff Find They Are in High Demand

Founded in 2018, Fidelity Digital Assets has been one of the most visible institutional advocates for crypto investing. It initially offered digital assets trading and custody for institutions, but has been expanding its suite of services. The company announced plans earlier this year to allow 401(k) plan participants to direct a portion of their savings into Bitcoin, and launched two exchange-traded funds tracking companies in the metaverse and crypto industries in April.

Fidelity Investments is one of the world’s largest investment managers and has more than $10.3 trillion assets under administration.