Fidelity said institutional investors are in “education mode” about cryptocurrencies in an interview with Reuters, despite soaring demand for digital assets by large investors.

The news comes as Bitcoin hit a record price of $62,000 earlier this month.

The total market capitalisation of the cryptocurrency temporarily hit $1.15 trillion, exceeding the combined market cap of Visa and Mastercard, which was $871 billion at the time.

Mike Durbin, head of Fidelity Institutional, acknowledged some investors were “sophisticated” when it came to utilising digital assets, but claimed most are still learning.

Fidelity had $9.8 trillion in customer assets under management as of 31 December, making it one of the world’s largest asset managers alongside BlackRock and Vanguard.

The Boston-based firm became one of the first large asset managers to adopt cryptocurrencies in 2018.

JPMorgan suggested in February that investors could make Bitcoin 1 per cent of their portfolios.

“I think that the growth rate of bitcoin or digital assets will follow in that wake of broader alternative investments,” said Durbin to Reuters. “There’s still work to be done there to help advisors understand portfolio construction with these kinds of expressions.”

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