Fidelity Investments is in advanced stages of developing its own stablecoin, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The Boston-based financial services giant plans for the token to serve as a form of digital cash, according to the report, which cites two people close to the matter.
The token would form part of company’s strategy to enter the tokenized government bonds market. Stablecoins are a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They provide a convenient way for crypto traders to preserve their fiat value without having to cash out of the market.
The news emerges just days after Fidelity filed paperwork to register a blockchain-based version of its U.S. dollar money market fund.
The company seeks to register an “OnChain” share class of its Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), which holds cash and U.S. Treasury securities and is available only to Fidelity’s hedge fund and institutional clients. A Fidelity stablecoin could fill the role of cash in this fund.
The stablecoin would enter an already crowded market dominated by the likes of Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. The report comes a day after World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance protocol backed by President Donald Trump, confirmed it too has plans to offer a stablecoin.
Fidelity did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.