Interactive Brokers Facilitates Cryptocurrency Trading in the US

As a global brokerage house, Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (Nasdaq: IBKR) announced today that it has begun offering cryptocurrency trading for its Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) in the United States. This allows these RIAs to transact and custody Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin on behalf of their clients through Paxos Trust Company.

There are a number of advantages for investment advisors (RIAs), including being able to manage their clients’ cryptocurrency holdings from a single screen while also managing their clients’ stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs from across the globe.

Securities, commodities and foreign currency are held in a single IBKR Integrated Investment Account by associates of Interactive Brokers Group around the clock, on more than 135 markets in many countries and currencies.

In a well-diversified strategy, a modest proportion of assets may be allocated to cryptocurrencies as portion of a well-diversified allocation, according to Interactive Brokers’ EVP of Marketing and Product Development Steve Sanders.

Our continued commitment to provide advisors with the financial products and resources they need for effective portfolio management and company expansion is underscored by the addition of cryptocurrency trading.

When compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers, Paxos on Interactive Brokers’ RIA platform charges commissions as low as 0.12 percent – 0.18 percent of trade value depending on monthly volume with a USD 1.75 minimum per order, while other exchanges and brokers charge fees as high as 2.00 percent of trade value or more and add spreads or markups to the price.

To top it all, there aren’t any hidden costs like spreads or markups. If RIAs in the US are interested, the service will be made accessible to other financial adviser firms across the globe in the future by Interactive Brokers. Further features on the IBKR RIA platform include:

• No ticket charges, no custodial fees, no minimums and no technology, software, platform or reporting fees.
• No in-house advisory team or proprietary trading group to compete with advisors for clients.
• Ability to trade stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds on over 135 markets from a single integrated master account, and trade cryptocurrencies from the same platform.
• Free CRM, portfolio management and trading platform, plus PortfolioAnalyst®, which gives advisors the ability to consolidate and analyze a client’s entire portfolio, including assets held at other institutions.
• Automated and flexible client billing.
• Free compliance and website building services.
• Debit Card and Bill Pay functions available for US advisor clients.

A licensed blockchain infrastructure platform called Paxos Trust Company offers cryptocurrency trading via Interactive Brokers. As of 2015, it was the first digital asset trust business to be authorized by the state of New York’s Department of Financial Services. As a result of this supervision, customers are better protected, and assets are kept in separate, out-of-the-way accounts throughout a bankruptcy.