• Fidelity's unit focused on cryptocurrency is planning to hire more than 100 tech workers, it told The Wall Street Journal.

• Fidelity Digital Assets wants to expand services beyond bitcoin.

• The unit will continue to invest in crypto technology despite market downturns.

Fidelity Investments' cryptocurrency-focused subsidiary is planning to hire more than 100 new technology workers as it works to expand its offerings beyond bitcoin, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The move by Fidelity Digital Asset Services comes after Fidelity Investments in April said it will allow customers to invest in bitcoin with their 401(k) plans later this year, the first major retirement-plan provider to embrace cryptocurrency as a savings vehicle.

Fidelity Digital Asset Services wants to add engineers and developers with blockchain expertise in its hiring of 110 tech workers for cryptocurrency services outside of bitcoin, Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Asset Services, told the Journal.

The subsidiary wants to build infrastructure to support custody and trading services for ether, the token that works on the Ethereum network. There are also plans to hire 100 customer-service specialists.

The business plans to keep investing in crypto-trading technology despite the recent slide in cryptocurrency prices.

"We are trying to build infrastructure for the future because we measure success over years and decades, not weeks and months," Jessop told the Journal.

Bitcoin traded higher on Tuesday, above $31,000, but was heading for a 16% decline in May. It's lost roughly 31% year to date.

Ether also rose on Tuesday, trading around $1,960. It was down about 29% in May and 47% so far in 2022.

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