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Fidelity, the $2.3 trillion investment giant, is testing out a new cryptocurrency service

Fidelity is testing out a new service to help make life easier for its clients who invest in cryptocurrencies. The $2.3 trillion investor announced on Wednesday a partnership between its Fidelity Labs, the firm's innovation center, and Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange serving nearly 9 million customers. As part of the partnership, Coinbase users will be able to view their bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin holdings alongside their other accounts in their Fidelity Portfolio.The company told Business Insider it's not entirely sure how many of its users will benefit from the service, but that's the whole point of the trial. "We are trying to create the best customer experience," Hadley Stern, managing director at Fidelity Labs, told Business Insider."When we allowed customers to donate bitcoin to our charitable fund we were unsure about how many people would do it, but it played out well."Donations made in bitcoin to Fidelity Charitable, a $16 billion donor-advised philanthropic fund, grew to about $9 million in the first half of 2017. That's about $2 million more than what bitcoin donors contributed in all of 2016.Fidelity's CEO Abigail Johnson is a bitcoin enthusiast. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Johnson voiced her support of the cryptocurrency in a speech at a conference hosted by CoinDesk, a cryptocurrency news site.“Some of you might be wondering: Why am I here today?” Johnson said, according to the Journal."I’m here because I love this stuff... all that the future might hold.”SEE ALSO: The 'Game of Thrones' hackers are asking for millions of dollars worth of bitcoinJoin the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: THE BOTTOM LINE: Historical crashes and where the market stands today

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The 'Game of Thrones' hackers are asking for millions of dollars worth of bitcoin

The anonymity of bitcoin, the blockchain-backed cryptocurrency, has made it a useful tool for some criminal outfits looking to operate in the shadows. The Italian mafia has used bitcoin to launder money for its illicit activities, for instance, and the notorious WannaCry hackers extorted over $140,000 worth of the cryptocurrency from their malware victimsAnd now an anonymous group of hackers is demanding HBO fork over millions of dollars in bitcoin to keep them from leaking sensitive information about the hit show "Game of Thrones." The demands came in the form of a five-minute video addressed to the network's CEO, Richard Plepler, from a "Mr. Smith," as reported by Business Insider's Alexandra Ma. The hackers said it took them six months to penetrate HBO's network to access draft scripts of the show and emails from top execs at HBO.They demanded their "6-month salary in bitcoin" and claimed they usually made $12 million to $15 million per year from similar hacks, according to the AP, implying a ransom demand of between $6 million and $7.5 million.The release of the hackers' video comes one day after British glamor model Chloe Ayling told reporters her kidnappers said they could fetch more than $300,000 in bitcoin for her on the black market.Since transactions on bitcoin's blockchain network are decentralized and anonymous, the cryptocurrency provides an attractive option for criminals looking to conduct business outside of the watchful eye of government officials. To be sure, the use of cryptocurrencies among criminal organizations is still very low, despite recent headlines."If you look at reports such as this recent one from the Council of the European Union, you will see that the amount of organized crime that use bitcoin is actually much lower than perceived," Ross Wilson of bitcoin exchange operator CoinCorner said in a recent email to Business Insider.The report from June found such cases involving cryptocurrencies and organized crime were "quite rare."SEE ALSO: A model who says she was kidnapped says auctions for women like her go for $300,000 worth of bitcoinJoin the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: THE BOTTOM LINE: Historical crashes and where the market stands today

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