Fidelity now allows clients to put bitcoins in IRAs - The Tell - MarketWatch

December 11, 2013, 3:31 PM

Fidelity has partnered with SecondMarket’s Bitcoin Investment Trust to allow its clients to save for their retirement by putting the virtual currency in self-directed IRAs.

“If you are a Fidelity client, you can now invest in the Bitcoin Investment Trust through an IRA,” said Barry Silbert, chief executive of SecondMarket, in an interview.

The Bitcoin Investment Trust is an open-ended trust that launched in late September and only invests in the virtual currency. The trust, which is only open to accredited investors, had $62.6 million in assets under management as of Tuesday.

MarketWatch previously reported that SecondMarket had teamed up with self-directed IRA providers PENSCO, Entrust and Equity Institutional  to allow investors to save for retirement with bitcoin. Fidelity is the largest and most well-known company that SecondMarket has teamed up with for this, Silbert said, adding that he hopes to add a few more providers soon.

An emailed request for comment from Fidelity wasn’t immediately returned.

Bitcoin has become a hot topic of late as its price has skyrocketed, attracting the attention of venture capitalists, regulators and central bankers. Unlike currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, bitcoin doesn’t have a central bank. Instead, the virtual currency is created through a process called mining, in which a computer solves a cryptographic problem.

–Saumya Vaishampayan

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http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/12/11/fidelity-now-allows-clients-to-put-bitcoins-in-iras/