Fidelity Asks SEC to Let Broker-Dealers Trade Crypto on Alternative Trading Systems

One of the largest financial institutions in the United States just told the SEC directly what it wants the next phase of crypto market structure to look like.

The Letter and What It Asks For

Fidelity Investments submitted a formal letter to the SEC Crypto Task Force on March 20, 2026, signed by General Counsel Roberto Braceras on behalf of Fidelity’s registered broker-dealers and registered investment advisers. The letter responds to Commissioner Hester Peirce’s request for information regarding national securities exchanges and alternative trading systems trading crypto assets, formally titled And Then Some.

The core request is straightforward. According to the letter, Fidelity is urging the SEC to develop a regulatory framework that would allow broker-dealers to trade crypto assets on alternative trading systems, known as ATSs, within the existing US regulatory infrastructure.

The letter frames this not as a request for special treatment but as a natural extension of the framework that already governs thousands of market participants transacting across 29 national securities exchanges and more than 113 alternative trading systems daily.

Why Fidelity Is Making This Argument Now

The timing is not coincidental. The SEC Crypto Task Force represents the most constructive posture the agency has taken toward crypto market structure in its history. Fidelity’s letter commends the Task Force’s forward-thinking approach to integrating new asset classes and technologies into the existing regulatory framework in ways that improve market efficiency, transparency, and investor access.

That framing is deliberate. Fidelity is not asking for a new system. It is arguing that the existing system, the interconnected National Market System built on the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Regulation NMS, and SEC rules, is capable of accommodating crypto assets if the framework is extended appropriately. The argument positions crypto trading on ATSs as a continuation of existing market structure rather than a departure from it.

What ATS Access Would Mean in Practice

Alternative trading systems are regulated venues that match buyers and sellers outside of traditional exchanges. They operate under SEC oversight through Form ATS registration and are subject to existing broker-dealer rules, market surveillance, and investor protection frameworks. Extending ATS eligibility to crypto assets would allow Fidelity and other registered broker-dealers to offer crypto trading through the same regulated infrastructure they use for equities and other securities, rather than through separate crypto-specific platforms that operate under different regulatory regimes.

The commercial significance for Fidelity is direct. The firm serves more than 50 million individuals and institutions through 13,500 financial intermediary firms. Its carrying broker-dealer, National Financial Services LLC, operates an NMS Stock ATS called CrossStream. Building on that existing infrastructure to accommodate crypto assets is operationally and commercially logical for a firm of Fidelity’s scale.

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The Broader Regulatory Context

The Fidelity letter arrives in the same week that the SEC and CFTC issued joint guidance classifying most crypto assets as digital commodities, the CFTC confirmed Bitcoin and Ethereum as eligible derivatives collateral, and NYSE completed the removal of position limits on crypto ETF options as covered in earlier reporting this week. The direction of the regulatory environment is aligned with what Fidelity is requesting. The letter formalizes that alignment into a specific ask on the market structure side of the framework.

The House Financial Services Committee hearing on tokenization and the future of capital markets scheduled for March 25 provides the legislative context into which this letter arrives. Fidelity is not waiting for the hearing to state its position. It is entering the record before Congress convenes.

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