Interactive Brokers will now allow retail investors to fund individual brokerage accounts with stablecoins, a move aimed at keeping pace with the increasingly competitive retail trading market, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The Greenwich, Conn.-based brokerage firm competes against rivals such as Robinhood Markets Inc. and Charles Schwab Corp. and earlier this year expanded its cryptocurrency trading capabilities alongside its stocks, options and futures offerings.
The development highlights how traditional brokerages are increasingly integrating crypto-related features to retain retail customers as digital assets take a more firm foothold in traditional finance. Allowing the use of stablecoins for account funding places Interactive Brokers among a growing group of companies testing blockchain-based payment rails to reduce friction and speed transfers, while keeping pace with competitors such as Robinhood that have expanded more aggressively into crypto.
The company will gradually introduce this feature, starting with a portion of eligible U.S. clients, an Interactive Brokers spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement. The company’s president, Thomas Peteterffty, initially announced the new capability at a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday,
Using stablecoins allows customers to fund their accounts directly from cryptocurrency wallets rather than bank accounts.
Interactive Brokers has also been active in adjacent crypto markets, including prediction markets tied to economic events.
In October, Interactive Brokers led a $104 million funding round for crypto infrastructure and stablecoin provider ZeroHash, which valued the company at $1 billion. This came a few months after Peterffy told Reuters that the company was considering issuing its own stablecoin, while also considering allowing customers to fund their accounts using tokens issued by third parties.
The company did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
