Every bit reported by The Globe and Postal service, Allegiance Clearing Canada received blessing from the Investment Industry Regulatory System of Canada on Wednesday to launch a Bitcoin (BTC) trading and custody platform. It is designed for use by institutional investors — such as pension funds, portfolio managers and common funds — and would be a first-of-a-kind service in the country.

The firm too plans to cater to retail investors with its regulatory filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded funded and common fund, which was submitted earlier this calendar week. As of September, Fidelity has over $4.2 trillion in assets nether management around the globe. In add-on, exchange-traded cryptocurrency products are apace gaining traction, with more twoscore such instruments awaiting approving in the U.s.a. solitary.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail service, Scott Mackenzie, president of Fidelity Clearing Canada, said the following:

"The demand for investing in digital avails is growing considerably and institutional investors have been looking for a regulated dealer platform to access this nugget class."

Related: Canadian investment firm plans to found copse matching buys in Bitcoin ETF

Canada'south route to cryptocurrency adoption has not been every bit smooth equally anticipated. 2 years prior, QuadrigaCX, the country'southward largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, complanate after the sudden and mysterious death of its co-founder, Gerald Cotten, resulting in the loss of access to stored funds in cold wallets. Cotten alone allegedly had access to the wallet keys that would unlock the roughly $143 million worth of deposits belonging to over 115,000 sometime QuadrigaCX customers. There is currently a Netflix documentary in the making well-nigh the life and decease of Cotten.