In Brief:
- IIROC granted approval to Fidelity Clearing Canada to introduce a Bitcoin trading and custody platform.
- FCC will launch a Bitcoin custodian platform only for institutional investors.
- FCC submitted filing for Bitcoin exchange-traded fund and mutual fund for retail investors.
On Nov 17, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada granted approval to Fidelity Clearing Canada (FCC) to introduce a Bitcoin trading and custody platform for institutional investors such as pension funds, portfolio managers, and mutual funds. With the launch of Bitcoin custodian, FCC will become the first Bitcoin custodian platform in the country.
As this approval only allows institutional inventors on the platform, The company has already submitted filling for a Bitcoin exchange-traded funded (ETF) and mutual fund earlier this week. At present, Fidelity is managing more than $4.2 trillion in assets across the globe as per the earlier report.
“This is a very exciting development for our clients, interested Canadian institutional investors and for Fidelity Clearing Canada,” said Scott Mackenzie, President, FCC. “The demand for investing in digital assets is growing considerably and institutional investors have been looking for a regulated dealer platform to access this asset class. Fidelity Clearing Canada is pleased to offer our new solution, leveraging Fidelity’s global expertise and deep knowledge of digital assets for leading Canadian institutional investors.”
In the past, many incidents had ruined the cakewalk of cryptocurrencies in Canada. After the sudden death of Gerald Cotten, who was the co-founder of QuadrigaCX, the largest crypto exchange at the time, nearly $143 million worth of deposit of 115,000 customers was drowned away as Cotten was the only person who had a key to access cold wallets, where funds were stored.
Currently, many firms are filling with authorities to launch Bitcoin exchange-traded fund as these cryptocurrency products rapidly gaining traction. Recently, Valkyrie filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch Bitcoin Futures ETF.
