Fidelity Launches Metaverse Experience in Tandem With New ETFs

The financial services giant seeks to educate and draw in younger investors

article-image
share

key takeaways

  • Users learn the basics of ETF investing while exploring Fidelity’s building in Decentraland
  • The announcement coincided with the launch of Fidelity’s crypto industry and metaverse ETFs

Brokerage firm Fidelity Investments launched its financial education experience in the metaverse in the hopes of attracting a new generation of customers.

Decentraland users are encouraged to learn the basics of ETF investing while exploring the Fidelity Stack, a multi-story building that features a lobby, dance floor and rooftop sky garden.

“We’re part of a dynamic shift as young people take control of their finances in new ways,” David Dintenfass, Fidelity’s chief marketing officer and head of emerging customers, said in a statement. “The next generation seeks out financial education in all the places they spend time, whether physical or virtual.”

Bank analysts at Citi recently projected the Web3 economy to reach between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030.

JPMorgan unveiled a virtual lounge in Decentraland in February, and financial services provider HSBC revealed last month it would acquire virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse.

Fidelity seeking to offer educational resources to younger investors comes after a survey published earlier this month found that kids are more familiar with crypto than their parents. The study, conducted by T. Rowe Price, found that 40% of the children surveyed believe crypto is the future of investing.

Investopedia’s 2022 Financial Literacy Survey found that while crypto investments are popular among Gen Z, millennial, and Gen X investors, 49% of Americans have only a rudimentary understanding of digital currency.

Fidelity’s metaverse experience launch came the same day that the company listed its Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF (FDIG) and its Metaverse ETF (FMET) after filing for the funds in January.

FDIG and FMET, which track Fidelity indices, have expense ratios of 39 basis points.

“These are obviously two topics that are hot and of interest to our clients, and we want to be able to solve their needs,” Greg Friedman, Fidelity’s head of ETF management and strategy, told Blockworks during last week’s Exchange ETF conference in Miami. “Crypto is just another asset class.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Strive board member Ben Werkman expects thousands of firms to hold BTC, if only “to protect themselves”

article-image

To date, 12.6 million humans have scanned at a World Orb

article-image

One small step for man, one giant leap for Bitcoin

article-image

Jay Woods, Chief Global Strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said it would be “very rare” for an acquisition to happen since the IPO may occur as soon as next week

article-image

Sponsored

Money is one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure, and M0 believes its architecture should serve builders, not extract from them

article-image

The financial backwaters they laughed at might be the only thing keeping the dollar afloat