Fidelity Charitable has received more than $100 million in crypto donations

Fidelity Charitable – the independent and public charity arm of Wall Street brokerage firm Fidelity – has received more than $100 million in cryptocurrency donations since it began accepting crypto in 2015.

Fidelity announced the figure in its annual report, which was published late last month.

Fidelity Charitable is an independent charity established in 1991. It has helped donors support more than 278,000 non-profit organisations with nearly $35 billion in grants.

The annual report revealed the charity has now received around $106 million in cryptocurrency contributions from donors since it began accepting cryptocurrency in 2015.

In 2018 alone, Fidelity Charitable received $30 million in cryptocurrency donations.

The report also notes that while the value of cryptocurrencies dropped considerably by the end of 2018, they started the year at a “peak”.

Fidelity Charitable’s move to accept cryptocurrency provided donors with a means to eliminate capital gains taxes and give their “full, fair market value” to charity.

The report also outlines some of Fidelity Charitable’s notable activities, stating that the charity made nearly 1.3 million donor-recommended grants totalling more than $5.2 billion last year.

The grants went to 142,000 unique organisations – large and small – reaching local, national, and international groups.

Doctors Without Borders USA, American National Red Cross, and the Salvation Army ranked as the most popular charities, though the report does not go into detail about which charities the grants were allocated to.

Interested in reading more Fidelity-related stories? Discover more about the launch of Fidelity’s cryptocurrency division known as ‘Fidelity Digital Assets‘, which focuses on hedge funds, family offices, pensions, endowments, and other institutional investors.