Fidelity likely to make crypto and blockchain-related announcements by the end of 2018, says CEO Abigail Johnson

Fidelity Investments is planning to announce blockchain and cryptocurrency-related products and services, Xconomy reported September 14.

The announcement was made by CEO Abigail Johnson during an event held at the company’s Boston headquarters. Speaking with local fintech leader Sarah Biller, Johnson revealed the firm’s work in the sphere of blockchain and cryptocurrencies saying:

“We’ve got a few things underway, a few things that are partially done but also kind of on the shelf because it’s not really the right time. We hope to have some things to announce by the end of the year.”

The company’s first foray into this space dates back to 2015 when Fidelity Charitable started accepting bitcoin donations. Last year, Fidelity Charitable received $69 million in donations of cryptocurrency – nearly tenfold increase from the previous year.

“That was a surprising hit,” Johnson said of enabling donors to give to Fidelity Charitable in the form of cryptocurrencies. “It worked out because there were so many people, newly incredibly wealthy through Bitcoin, who were looking to become philanthropists. We made it really easy for them.”

Last year, Johnson revealed that Fidelity Investments had also set up bitcoin and ethereum mining operation for educational purposes – to better understand this emerging sector. While the mining operation became profitable, Johnson clarified that it was “never the intent” to make money off of it.

“It seemed like kind of a dubious concept at the time, but I think the price [of Bitcoin] was around $160 to $180 at the time we launched the mining operation,” Johnson said. “We never thought we’d make money, but we figured it would be a good idea because we’d get in at the ground level and we’d learn something.”

Recent reports suggested that Nasdaq is working on a tool that will give institutional investors the ability to predict price movements of crypto assets. The stock exchange giant is also reportedly seeking to list cryptocurrencies on its platform in 2019. Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, is reportedly putting its plans to open crypto trading desk on hold.