Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing at Fidelity Digital Assets, talks about how 30 years in traditional finance and an early retirement led her to Coinbase, and, eventually, Fidelity Digital Assets. She discusses the history of Fidelity's involvement in crypto, how they became one of the first to enter the space, and what the future holds. Topics include: what Fidelity Digital Assets is and Christine's role there Christine's background in traditional finance, how she was drawn into the world of cryptocurrencies, eventually working at Coinbase, and how she found her way to Fidelity Digital Assets the role Fidelity sees itself playing in the digital asset space how the client base for digital assets has changed over time how Fidelity approaches the difficulties around explaining what bitcoin and crypto is, and the most common questions they receive how the pandemic has changed the conversation around digital currencies the types of services and products Fidelity is considering for the future the differences Fidelity sees in how international investors are approaching digital currency Fidelity's plans for a Bitcoin index fund and whether they are considering offering futures how financial institutions and institutional investors fit into a world of decentralized finance founded with the ethos of excluding them the regulatory improvements Fidelity is hoping to see what a Bitcoin ETF would mean for Fidelity how Fidelity might use a central bank digital currency in its business Fidelity's thoughts on offering proof of stake services whether a more deflationary Ethereum might attract more institutional investors and whether Fidelity will offer Ethereum in the future   Thank you to our sponsor!  Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com   Episode links:  Christine Sandler: https://twitter.com/shoegalnyc Fidelity Digital Assets: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/overview Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigitalAssets   Christine leaves Coinbase for FDAS: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-poaches-coinbase-institutional-sales-head-christine-sandler   Fidelity Center for Applied Technology: https://fcatalyst.com/overview   Fidelity Digital Assets looking to become prime broker: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/68920/fidelity-digital-assets-eyes-service-for-introducing-crypto-funds-to-big-investors   How the client profile has changed: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/42342/the-client-profile-is-changing-fidelity-digital-assets-exec-says-new-players-are-entering-the-crypto-fold   How to Explain Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains to the Average Person Unchained episode: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-to-explain-cryptocurrencies-and-blockchains-to-the-average-person/   Fidelity expands crypto business to Europe: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-to-expand-institutional-crypto-business-to-europe   Fidelity obtains New York Trust Charter: https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-gets-a-new-york-trust-charter-to-custody-bitcoin-for-institutions   Bitcoin Index Fund: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/08/26/fidelity-president-files-for-new-bitcoin-fund/?sh=13aa335445c9   Fidelity survey of 800 institutional investors: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/FDAS/institutional-investor-study.pdf   FDAS hiring: https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/articles/engineering-hiring-initiative?ccmedia=owned&ccchannel=social&cccampaign=hiring_blog&cctactics=twitter   Kingdom Trust:  https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-digital-assets-to-custody-bitcoin-in-kingdom-trust-retirement-accounts   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices