Interactive Brokers will now allow retail investors to fund individual brokerage accounts with stablecoins, a move aimed at keeping up with the increasingly competitive retail market, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based brokerage competes with rivals including Robinhood Markets Inc. and Charles Schwab Corp. and earlier this year expanded its cryptocurrency trading capabilities along with its stock, options and futures offerings.
The development highlights how traditional brokerages are increasingly incorporating crypto-linked features to retain retail clients as digital assets gain a firmer foothold in mainstream finance. By allowing stablecoins to be used for account funding, Interactive Brokers is among a growing group of firms testing blockchain-based payment rails to reduce friction and speed up transfers, while keeping pace with rivals such as Robinhood, which have expanded more aggressively into crypto.
The firm will gradually introduce the feature, starting with a portion of eligible U.S. customers, an Interactive Brokers spokesman confirmed in an emailed statement. The firm’s chairman, Thomas Peteterffty, initially announced the new capacity at a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday,
Using stablecoins allows customers to fund accounts directly from cryptocurrency wallets instead of bank accounts.
Interactive Brokers has also been active in adjacent crypto markets, including prediction markets linked to economic events.
In October, Interactive Brokers led a $104 million funding round for crypto and stablecoin infrastructure provider ZeroHash, valuing the company at $1 billion. It came months after Peterffy told Reuters the firm was exploring issuing its own stablecoin, while also considering allowing customers to fund accounts using tokens issued by third parties.
The firm did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
