Fidelity to Allow Retail Investors to Trade Cryptocurrencies Without Commission

Fidelity Investments is set to launch a commission-free cryptocurrency trading product for retail investors. The move is seen as a way to make digital assets more accessible to the masses.

Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest asset managers with $9.9 trillion in assets under management, has launched a waitlist for its new cryptocurrency trading and custody platform.Called Fidelity Crypto, the platform will allow users to buy, sell and trade bitcoin and ether, and will be backed by Fidelity's subsidiary, Fidelity Digital Assets.To be eligible for the platform, users will need to maintain a minimum account balance of $1.

Fidelity Investments has announced that it is now offering its customers the ability to trade cryptocurrencies on its platform.In a statement shared with CNBC, Fidelity said that "where our customers invest matters more than ever." The company noted that a "meaningful portion" of its customer base is already interested in cryptocurrencies, and that it is providing them with the tools they need to benefit from Fidelity's education, research, and technology.Fidelity's move into the cryptocurrency space is yet another sign that the mainstream financial world is beginning to take digital assets seriously.

Fidelity Crypto will not charge commission fees on trades, but will instead factor in a 1% spread on every trade execution price.

Fidelity has followed Robinhood and Binance.US in offering commission-free crypto trading. The reveal comes at a time when investors are questioning the ability of Coinbase and other exchanges like it to generate revenue. Historically, they have relied on trading fees for revenue, but fee-free trading in crypto has become an increasingly inevitability.