Financial services provider Fidelity Investments said Tuesday it has launched a workplace Digital Assets Account (DAA) offering that enables individuals to have a portion of their retirement savings allocated to bitcoin.
Officials said the initiative via the core 401(k) plan investment lineup is slated to be added to business Intelligence solutions provider MicroStrategy’s 401(k) plan later this year and will be available broadly to employers mid-year.
“As a leader in digital assets, we are thrilled to be the first to offer employers exposure to bitcoin for the core lineup of 401(k)s that reflects our commitment to meeting their evolving needs and our belief in the promise of blockchain technology for the financial industry’s future,” said Dave Gray, head of Workplace Retirement Offerings and Platforms at Fidelity Investments. “There is growing interest from plan sponsors for vehicles that enable them to provide their employees access to digital assets in defined contribution plans, and in turn from individuals with an appetite to incorporate cryptocurrencies into their long-term investment strategies.”
Through the offering, interested employers will be able to offer employees bitcoin access through an investment option in their core 401(k) retirement plans on Fidelity’s platforms, officials said.
“MicroStrategy looks forward to working with Fidelity to become the first public company to offer their employees the option to invest in bitcoin as part of our 401(k) program,” MicroStrategy Chairman and CEO Michael Saylor said. “Teaming with companies like Fidelity that are innovating in bitcoin for corporations is important to us, as is furthering the development of the bitcoin ecosystem for institutional investors.”
The Fidelity Digital Assets 2021 Institutional Investor Digital Assets Study maintains 30 percent of domestic institutional investors prefer to buy an investment product with digital assets.