Interactive Brokers will add cryptocurrency trading to its platform by the end of the summer, CEO Thomas Peterffy has revealed. The platform has about 1.33 million customer accounts and $330.6 billion in customer equity as of the first quarter.
Interactive Brokers to Offer Cryptocurrency Trading
The chairman and CEO of Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR), Thomas Peterffy, said at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & Fintech Conference Wednesday that his company will start offering direct cryptocurrency trading. Peterffy was quoted by the media as saying:
Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading] and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer.
The platform has about 1.33 million customer accounts and $330.6 billion in customer equity as of the first quarter. Clients from over 200 countries and territories invest globally in stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds from a single integrated Interactive Brokers account.
The CEO further commented on the launch of cryptocurrency trading: “As for hurdles, the greatest hurdle is how do you keep your customers 100% safe. How do you make it 100% sure that no one will steal their coins in spite of the fact that they are untraceable. We will find out more about this when we open for business at the end of the summer.”
Other major brokers, such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab, currently do not offer direct crypto trading on their platforms but some do offer access to some crypto-related funds. Meanwhile, stock trading apps, such as Robinhood, do offer cryptocurrency trading.
Interactive Brokers currently offers a variety of cryptocurrency-related investments but not direct crypto trading. Among the products offered are Grayscale Investments’ products: the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, Litecoin Trust, and the Digital Large Cap Fund.
The platform also offers XBT Provider Bitcoin Tracker One and XBT Provider Ethereum. It also offer a number of indices: NYSE Bitcoin Index, the Gemini Bitcoin Trace Price Index, CME Bitcoin Reference Rate Index, and CME Bitcoin Real Time Index. As for cryptocurrency futures, the platform offers the Gemini Bitcoin Trace Price Futures, CME Bitcoin Reference Rate Futures, CME Ether Dollar Reference Rate Futures, and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures.
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