Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ: IBKR) is looking forward to offering cryptocurrencies trading within its platform in the coming months, according to an announcement made at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference. Thomas Peterffy, Interactive Brokers Chairman and CEO, made the announcement and hinted at the possibility of having it ready by the end of the summer.
“Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading], and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer,” Peterffy said. Despite this being the full inception of the US-listed brokerage firm within the crypto trading, trading of Bitcoin futures has already been available on its platform since a long time ago.
However, its major rivals, such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity, don’t offer crypto trading on their platforms. Instead, they both offer access to some crypto-related funds. “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,” Interactive Brokers CEO added to the announcement, cited by CNBC.
Recently, Interactive Brokers launched trading services with US Gold. With the new commodities instrument, the brokerage firm clients can trade US spot gold in amounts as small as one ounce. Additionally, the broker now allows physical delivery settlement of COMEX Gold, Micro Gold, Silver, and Micro Silver Futures.
The crypto trading announcement comes in the midst of the monthly performance metrics for May recently released, where Interactive Brokers noted that it witnessed an uptick regarding their ending client equity in March.
The brokerage company accounted for a total of $330.6 billion for the month. Also, the ending client margin loan balances in the firm were $45.8 billion, which was 97% higher than 2020 and 2% higher than April.
