Interactive Brokers Launches Crypto Trading for US Financial Advisors

Interactive Brokers LLC (NASDAQ: IBKR) announced on Monday that it had officially launched cryptocurrency trading for financial advisors, known as Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), in the United States. According to the press release, RIAs are now able to trade and custody Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on behalf of clients via Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure platform.

“Allocating a small percentage of assets to cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has steadily become more commonplace, and advisors may wish to recommend cryptocurrency to their clients. Adding cryptocurrency trading underscores our ongoing dedication to providing advisors with the investment products and tools they need to successfully manage client portfolios and grow their businesses,” Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers, commented about the news.

The possibility of RIAs handling cryptos via Interactive Brokers was announced a month after the US-listed brokerage launched its crypto trading services. In September, the firm said that crypto trading on the platform would have commissions of between 0.12% and 0.18% of the trade value, depending on the monthly volume. Although the service is only available in the US, Interactive Brokers hinted at plans of deploying the service for financial advisors globally.

September Metrics for Interactive Brokers

Recently, the brokerage released its monthly brokerage metrics for September 2021, reporting a surge in its daily average revenue trades (DARTs) of 16% compared to last year’s figure. DARTs were 2.260 million, which is a 4% increase on August 2021. Moreover, its ending client equity hit $353.8 billion, which is 52% higher than in the same period last year and was 3% lower than the prior month.

During the report published in August, Interactive Brokers saw 2.170 million DARTs for the period, which is 24% higher than the 2020 figures, and 8% lower than July. Additionally, the firm reported 329 annualized average cleared DARTs per client account in August.

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