Fidelity Reveals Pension Funds Are Exploring Crypto

The exploration is still in its very early stages, said Fidelity’s VP of Digital Assets.

Pension funds are cozying up to crypto.

WatcherGuru reported that Manuel Nordeste, Fidelity’s VP of digital assets, said in an event that pension funds “are only starting to talk to their investment committees” about crypto assets.

The move has the potential to mobilize trillions in capital towards the digital asset industry. According to a 2023 report by the OECD, the 87 top pension funds alone had $9.8 trillion in investments in 2022.

Nordeste isn’t the only top-level Wall Street executive that believes trillions are waiting to flood the crypto market.

Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise, predicted $1 trillion to enter the digital asset space thanks to the astounding success of the spot Bitcoin ETFs. “The January launch of spot bitcoin ETFs opened up the crypto market to investment professionals in a major way for the first time ever,” wrote Hougan in an internal memo on April 1.

Fidelity Has Been Pioneering Crypto and TradFi

Fidelity Investments has been spearheading the crossroads of traditional finance and crypto.

In the midst of the grueling bear market in 2018, the firm–which handles $4.9 trillion in assets under management–opened its digital asset arm, and has since deployed billions across the market.

FBTC is one of the most favored spot Bitcoin ETFs for investors, trailing only Grayscale’s GBTC and Blackrock’s IBIT in terms of total onchain holdings. A Dune dashboard reports Fidelity holding 147,955 BTC or $9.1 billion on behalf of its clients (translating to 17% of the total sector), with GBTC holding 291,969 BTC and IBIT showcasing 273,825 bitcoin.

The firm has also been paving the way for broader institutional crypto adoption. It applied for a spot Ethereum ETF which would also include a staking option for its clients. However, the SEC has repeatedly delayed giving a verdict, causing experts to estimate a 50-50 chance of approval by the May 23 deadline.