American monetary services giant Fidelity said that its cryptocurrency trading and custody platform is in the “final testing and process refinement periods” in a Medium blog post on January. 31.

Per the announcement, the firm is presently providing services to a small, select group of clients whereas it continues to make the platform’s infrastructure. The firm states:

“Our initial clients are an important a part of our final testing and process refinement periods, which can eventually enable us to provide these services to a broader set of eligible institutions.”

Fidelity declared the event of a crypto platform with the the launch of a brand new company, Fidelity Digital asset Services, in October 2018. Fidelity then declared that the new company can offer custody and trade execution services for digital assets, targeting institutional investors like “hedge funds, family offices and market intermediaries,” and will not for now be open to retail investors.

In today’s announcement, Fidelity notes that its development team has been operating with auditors so as to make sure regulative compliance and “adapt existing operational processes” to the new cryptocurrency-oriented platform.

Custody services are commonplace in the traditional finance sector, and offer investors an area to store assets like money, securities, and commodities like gold and diamonds in order that they're not lost or stolen. Custody services differ from banks in that they're not allowed to use the stored assets for his or her own gain. Major companies like JPMorgan, BNY Mellon and Northern Trust offer custody services.

Earlier in the week, unnamed sources told Bloomberg that the crypto custodial service might launch by March 2019.

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