Former Fidelity executive Jurica Bulovic has claimed that Fidelity could be a formidable competitor to Coinbase in the cryptocurrency space.
Bulovic believes that Fidelity should take advantage of this opportunity and maintain a modest attitude in its early forays into digital assets.
Alex Thorn of Galaxy Digital agreed, saying Fidelity entered the crypto space ahead of most traditional financial institutions.
Jurica Bulovic, a former Fidelity executive who is now head of mining operations at Foundry, said Fidelity could have been a formidable competitor to Coinbase in the cryptocurrency exchange space.
The comments, published in a Wall Street Journal article, sparked discussion of a possible different landscape for the cryptocurrency industry.
Fidelity could be as important as Coinbase, Bulovic said. He believes that the financial giant should have been more aggressive in its early days of foraying into digital assets. “Fidelity could have been more aggressive,” he said, emphasizing the company’s unique advantages over its traditional financial rivals.
Alex Thorn, head of company-wide research at Galaxy Digital, agrees. He noted that Fidelity is in a leading position, getting involved in the cryptocurrency space earlier than most traditional financial institutions.
“Fidelity has a longer history in this than any other conventional financial institution,” Thorne said. He added that the company’s early investment in the industry made it an attractive destination for the industry’s top talent.
Interestingly, Fidelity Investments CEO Abby Johnson has taken a more bullish stance on Bitcoin (BTC), especially with other traditional finance (TradFi) investors such as Goldman Sachs CEO Jamie Dimon compared to executives. Matt Walsh, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures, argues the opposite. “Jamie Dimon likens Bitcoin to a tulip bubble, and Abby is at the other extreme,” Walsh said.
However, despite Johnson’s initial enthusiasm, a combination of factors led her to scale back Fidelity’s cryptocurrency ambitions. The Wall Street Journal article pointed to regulatory clarity and internal and external pressures as key reasons for the shift in strategy.
Fidelity, along with other major financial institutions such as BlackRock and Ark Invest, are currently applying for ETF licenses to trade spot bitcoin. Unfortunately, their application has not yet been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
