institutional clients of fidelity investments’ digital assetsfocused subsidiary will be able to trade and custody ether eth starting today ethereum’s native token will be the second cryptocurrency after bitcoin available on fidelity digital assets’ platform which counts hundreds of institutional clients according to the firm earlier this month the company registered an ethereum index fund which tracks the corresponding index reflecting the performance of ether in us dollars with the securities and exchange commission according to an oct 4 filing the vehicle has over 5 million in investments with the minimum required amount of 50000 the latest move follows ethereum’s transition to a nearly carbonneutral model and changes in the economics of ether completed in september in response to forbes’ request for comment about the new institutional ether trading offering a company spokesperson pointed to an earlier statement “as the marketplace for digital assets grows fidelity recognizes the need for a diverse set of products and solutions that help customers gain exposure in a manner that aligns with their distinct financial objectives and risk tolerance we have continued to see client demand for exposure to digital assets beyond bitcoin” ric edelman a financial advisor and founder of the digital assets council of financial professionals says the news is “long expected but nevertheless exciting it reaffirms the importance of ethereum in the crypto field and gives investors confidence about investing in crypto” he writes in a comment to forbes however he adds “investor attention is largely elsewhere—the global macro environment” right now institutions are awaiting regulatory clarity and the next crypto bull market both expected within the next 1224 months he writes mark connors head of research at canadabased digital asset manager 3iq says moves like this actually “put pressure on regulators to advance the already accelerating pace of regulatory efforts in the us” so the asset manager seems to be playing a long game according to sources close to the company fidelity digital assets has about 400 employees and plans to add approximately 100 more within six months additionally the wall street journal reported in september that the parent fidelity investments is weighing a plan to allow individual investors to trade bitcoin on its brokerage platform in april fidelity said it would allow retirement savers to put bitcoin in their 401k accounts later this year the company currently provides an exchangetraded fund etf focused on metaverse investments and another one for crypto and digital payments