Fidelity Expands its BTC, ETH Trading to Most Retail Accounts

Amid a severe banking crisis, Fidelity Investments has opened access to bitcoin and ether trading to all its retail traders.

Amid several banks’ closures recently, Fidelity Investments has stepped in to fill the gap created by crypto-friendly banks to bridge the divide between digital and traditional finance. The Fidelity Crypto platform was previously only available to its institutional, and a select few waitlisted customers were made available to all the firm’s clients earlier this month.

Forbes reports that individual investors can now buy and sell both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) and use custodial and trading services offered by Fidelity Digital Assets. Fidelity’s clients still cannot transfer cryptocurrencies to or from their Fidelity accounts, and the firm has yet to provide a timeline as to when that might be possible.

Trading services are only available to United States citizens over the age of 18 who live in one of the 36 states where Fidelity Digital offers its services.

Fidelity Now Offers “Commission-Free” Trading

The brokerage firm announced the launch of Fidelity Crypto at the end of last year. The firm said through Fidelity Crypto, it will offer bitcoin and ether trading commission-free but will add a 1% fee to each transaction. Fidelity labels the fee as a spread and explains it as “the difference between your execution price and the price at which Fidelity Digital Assets fills your order.” The spread will be visible in the client’s execution price.

Fidelity Urged to Stop its Crypto Activity

Fidelity’s crypto activities have not been met without criticism. In December, three U.S. senators sent a letter to Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson requestion that the firm drops its 401(k) Bitcoin offering. The senators cited the fall of the crypto exchange FTX as the reason the firm revised its Bitcoin offering to retirement savers.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.