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Portfolio > Alternative Investments > Cryptocurrencies

Fidelity Launches Digital Assets Analytics Platform

By Bernice Napach

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What You Need to Know

  • The platform is called Sherlock, presumably after the detective Sherlock Holmes.
  • The platform's is designed to help institutional investors navigate the digital assets market.
  • It provides data and analysis on blockchain, the digital assets market and sentiment, industry updates and more.

Fidelity has launched a digital assets data and analytics platform to help institutional investors navigate that market.

Sherlock, presumably named after the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, provides data and analysis on blockchain, the digital assets market and sentiment around those assets — Fidelity doesn’t use the word “crypto” or “cryptocurrencies” in its press release — industry updates, and growth and activity of the digital assets ecosystem.

All this information is available in one central location, which can help institutions make investment decisions about digital assets, a company spokesperson said.

“Sherlock helps institutional investors research digital assets more efficiently, and we continue to experiment with it and explore how technology can help simplify other aspects of investing in this space,” said Adam Schouela, head of emerging technology at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, which developed Sherlock and is now expanding its earlier limited release while it continues to develop and enhance the platform.

Blockchain is a key focus area for FCAT, which believes that Blockchain and digital assets “will play an important role in the financial industry’s future,“ Schouela said.

FCAT also has a blockchain incubator team that conducts research and builds proofs of concept around specific uses for the technology.

Fidelity did not specify which institutions will use the new platform but noted that it was piloted by users such as crypto venture capital firms, hedge funds and family offices and available to traditional asset managers as well as “digital asset native investors.”

A Fidelity survey of nearly 800 institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe conducted by Greenwich Associates from November 2019 to early March 2020 found that 36% invested in digital assets and that U.S. investors who owned digital assets increased their share from 22% in 2019 to 27% in 2020.

Sources of the platform’s data include GitHub, Amberdata, Inca Digital, Kaiko and Social Market Analytics (SMA).

Fidelity Stands Out

Fidelity Investments is one of the first traditional financial firms to embrace blockchain and digital currencies. In 2015 its donor-advised fund, Fidelity Charitable, began accepting Bitcoin donations. In 2018, the firm opened Fidelity Digital Assets to provide custody and trade execution services for crypto assets owned by sophisticated institutional investors such as hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries.

In 2020 it launched a Bitcoin index fund for qualified investors with a minimum $100,000 investment, and earlier this year Fidelity filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a Bitcoin ETF, which would be available to all investors. In early April, Fidelity joined with three other firms to found The Crypto Council for Innovation, a lobbying group to educate governments, the public and institutions about cryptocurrency assets.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

Bernice Napach

@Think_Napach

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