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Fidelity Investments, America’s largest provider of 401(k) savings accounts, is rolling out the Digital Assets Account, a new proprietary offering that gives companies access to Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s leading cryptocurrency.
According to a New York Times report, the new product is expected to go live this summer, enabling companies—if they choose to do so—to add Bitcoin to their customers’ retirement saving accounts.
“We started to hear a growing interest from plan sponsors, organically, as to how could Bitcoin or how could digital assets be offered in a retirement plan,” Dave Gray, head of workplace retirement offerings and platforms at Fidelity Investments, told the NYT.
A 401(k) account is a company-sponsored retirement saving and investing plan that gives employees a tax break on the money they contribute. Contributions are automatically withdrawn from employee paychecks and invested in funds picked up by the employees.
According to Gray, MicroStrategy, a business analytics firm headed by Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, has already joined the initiative, and Fidelity is holding discussions with other employers.
In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gray stressed the “need for a diverse set of products and investment solutions for our investors.”
“We fully expect that cryptocurrency is going to shape the way future generations think about investing for the near term and long term,” he said.
The Boston-based firm said that companies would be able to allocate up to 20% of their employees' funds in Bitcoin.
Depending on the amount invested and the employer, the account fee will be between 0.75% and 0.90% of assets. An additional, yet to be disclosed, trading fee will be “competitively priced,” added the firm.
Fidelity enters crypto space
Fidelity Investments, which had as much as $4.2 trillion in assets under management last year, also operates Fidelity Digital, a crypto-focused arm offering its clients Bitcoin-related custody, trading, and other services.
Last year, Fidelity Digital president Tom Jessop said that while family offices and hedge funds used to make up most of the firm’s clients, that list began expanding to retirement advisers and corporations willing to hold crypto.
Not everyone in the U.S. is happy about seeing Bitcoin as part of retirement plans.
Last month, the Department of Labor, which oversees workplace retirement plans, raised “serious concerns” about cryptocurrencies, labeling them “speculative and volatile investments.”