Executive says subsidiary plans to hire 110 technical professionals by the end of the year as it expands beyond bitcoin into other digital currencies

A subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, which was established a few years ago to enable institutional investors to store and trade bitcoin, is to quadruple its headcount this year in anticipation of a rise in demand for cryptocurrencies amid volatile market conditions.

Tom Jessop, the company's president, said that Fidelity Digital Asset Services LLC wants to recruit 110 tech personnel, including blockchain-savvy engineers and developers, to construct digital infrastructure to enable services for cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. In addition, the company intends to hire 100 customer support representatives.

Tuesday, Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets told Reuters:

As the demand for digital assets continues to steadily grow and the marketplace evolves, we will continue to expand our hiring efforts

Mr. Jessop said that the team will also shift platform data and apps to the cloud to facilitate speedier transactions and 24-hour trading assistance and to guarantee that the platform continues to provide institutional-grade security as it expands. He said that the team would also develop compliance and tax-reporting capabilities.

We’re trying not to focus on the downturns and focus on some of the long-term indicators. We are trying to build infrastructure for the future because we measure success over years and decades, not weeks and months.

Fidelity Digital Assets said that it will continue to invest in technology that facilitates crypto trading despite market instability, including a sharp decline in cryptocurrency values in recent weeks.

Head of product Terrence Dempsey says Fidelity Digital Assets has 400 customers, including RIAs, hedge funds, and asset managers.

Dylan Gomez, director and head of software engineering at financial-services recruiter Selby Jennings, said demand for blockchain and cryptocurrency engineers and developers is growing. Competition and pay have increased, he added.

According to CompTIA, crypto-related job postings tripled between Jan. 1 and May 24. Traditional financial-services firms continue to seek crypto and blockchain skills. The announcement of the hiring comes weeks after cryptocurrencies saw a significant decline after the demise of the stablecoin terraUSD. Stablecoins are digital currencies whose value is related to that of tangible things.