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Fidelity Digital Assets President Tom Jessop has shared his view on the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation under the Biden administration. He confirms that Fidelity is seeing strong demand for bitcoin from institutional buyers.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jessop explained what he expects in terms of cryptocurrency regulation from the Biden administration in an interview with CNBC last week. Jessop is head of Corporate Business Development for Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Digital Assets.<\/p>\n He began by talking about Joe Biden\u2019s pick as the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler. Given the MIT blockchain professor\u2019s experience<\/a> in the space, Jessop said, \u201cI think it paints a more generally constructive attitude, or a picture, in terms of what we might expect going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The Fidelity Digital Assets head also believes that positive crypto regulations implemented during the Trump administration will continue. \u201cI would note that we saw some fairly interesting and good regulatory developments last year,\u201d he opined. \u201cYou look at the OCC and some of the guidance they\u2019ve given banks around access to the asset class or even participating in some of these networks<\/a>.\u201d The Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), under Brian Brooks, introduced a number of positive regulations<\/a> for cryptocurrency. However, Brooks recently resigned.<\/p>\n Jessop said that during the previous administration:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve started to see more constructive engagement with the regulators \u2026 We think that will persist into the new year just given what we\u2019re seeing in terms of institutional as well as retail demand.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Commenting on Janet Yellen\u2019s recent remarks that cryptocurrencies are mainly used for illicit financing<\/a>, Jessop admitted that it does worry him. However, he contradicted the new Treasury Secretary by quoting a recent report<\/a> by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis which found that crypto crime fell sharply to only 0.34% of all crypto transactions in 2020.<\/p>\n Without dismissing Yellen\u2019s concern, Jessop said, \u201cbut I think that there are perhaps other places to look \u2026 where this activity [illicit financing] is occurring with greater frequency and in greater size. So, I would not diminish the risk but I think the risk is potentially smaller than people might suggest it to be.\u201d Furthermore, he believes that \u201cit\u2019s diminishing or declining on a year-on-year basis, which again is positive in terms of further development of this ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the bitcoin market which has seen significant price movements over the past weeks, the Fidelity Digital Assets president shared:<\/p>\n Our clients, institutions that work with us, have been steady net buyers throughout the entire period and we continue to see strong demand among institutions for access to the asset class. That\u2019s really our perspective on what\u2019s happened recently.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/ins> <\/ins> <\/p>\n \u201cI think we are in a very different market now than the one we experienced in 2017,\u201d the Fidelity executive said without ruling out the possibility of any future bitcoin price decline. \u201cI think the composition of investor interest has changed dramatically,\u201d he described, emphasizing that we have moved from 2017 which saw \u201ca very retail-driven frenzy\u201d and \u201cnow we\u2019re seeing a much broader base of institutional adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n Jessop proceeded by rapidly listing more evidence: \u201cYou\u2019re seeing this certainly from service providers like us in our business. You\u2019re seeing this through open interest on futures exchanges. You\u2019re seeing this with Blackrock<\/a> announcing that a few of their funds will have access to bitcoin futures.\u201d He concluded:<\/p>\n I also think the market is maturing. There\u2019s more liquidity. Volatility is down about 50% from where it was in 2017. So I do believe, we believe, that the composition of this investor base, what\u2019s driving the market higher today, is fundamentally different than what we saw three years ago.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nFidelity Digital Assets\u2019 Head Optimistic About the Future of Bitcoin<\/h2>\n
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