Fidelity enters crowded stablecoin field with new FIDD token

Fidelity Investments, one of the largest asset managers on the planet, announced on Wednesday it will launch its own stablecoin. Like other stablecoins, Fidelity’s token—known as the Fidelity Digital Dollar or FIDD—will be fully backed by reserves to ensure it maintains a one-to-one peg to the dollar. The company said FIDD will be available from Fidelity and on exchanges in the coming weeks, and that it will be available to both institutional and retail clients.

“As general adoption in the digital assets space continues to evolve, we felt this was the logical next step for the marketplace and our clients,” said Mike O’Reilly, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, in a statement to Fortune.

The arrival of FIDD comes nearly a year after reports that Fidelity was testing a stablecoin, though at the time the company stated it had no plan to launch one.

Fidelity is known primarily as an upscale brokerage and asset manager that deals in traditional offerings like stocks and bonds. At the same time, it stood out during the early days of crypto as one of the first mainstream financial firms to embrace blockchain under longtime CEO Abigail Johnson, and even mined Ethereum and Bitc...