Interactive Brokers Group Launches Crypto Trading for U.S. Financial Advisors

Global brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group is bringing crypto trading to Registered Financial Advisors (RIAs) in the U.S. today. Through Paxos Crypto Brokerage, RIAs resident in the U.S. can now trade and custody Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash for their clients. 

This isn’t the first time Interactive Brokers has struck a deal with Paxos to facilitate public crypto trading.

Last month, the firm rolled out crypto trading for U.S. clients under the custodianship of Paxos. Paxos is also the broker behind PayPal’s new crypto-trading offering for U.K. users, launched back in August. 

RIAs who trade crypto via Interactive Brokers’ new platform can expect a nominal commission fee of between 0.12% and 0.18% depending on monthly trading volume, with a minimum fee per order of $1.75. For context, the same trade done via Coinbase would normally cost 2%. 

The digital infrastructure that Paxos has built for Interactive Brokers offers U.S.-based RIAs a detailed interface to manage clients’ positions, with customizable reports and real-time data tracking crypto-related stocks, futures, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, and options. 

The global brokerage firm hopes its crypto adoption will spread beyond U.S. borders and is aiming to launch its crypto services to other RIAs around the world. 

Interactive Brokers’ rapid adoption of cryptocurrency trading reflects changing attitudes towards cryptocurrencies as an asset class."Initially, financial giants like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were wary, but Bitcoin’s latest bull run has triggered a change in institutional policy.  

This summer, Goldman Sachs published a report U-turning on its former position that Bitcoin wasn’t a legitimate asset class. Meanwhile, around the same time, JP Morgan gave wealth management clients access to Bitcoin and Ethereum funds. 

With more on-ramps than ever before, crypto is slowly legitimizing its own existence.