Traditional Brokerage Enters Crypto: Interactive Brokers Surges Into Crypto Market in Three Months

Original Article Title: "Interactive Brokers 2026 First Battle, Choosing to Open Up the Crypto Market"

Original Article Author: Mach, Foresight News

In 2026, Interactive Brokers took only three months to bring the low-cost, professional execution of traditional brokerage business into the crypto market.

Interactive Brokers, listed on Nasdaq in 2007, currently has a market capitalization of $113.7 billion. The brokerage platform is known for its low commissions, best execution prices, and advanced trading technology, providing diversified product trading services such as stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, and funds in over 170 markets, 200 countries, and regions for individual investors, active traders, and institutional clients through an integrated platform.

Such a traditional US stock market giant chose to open up a new battlefield in the cryptocurrency field in 2026.

Interactive Brokers Current CEO Milan Galik

Interactive Brokers first targeted the deposit channel—stablecoins.

In January, Interactive Brokers launched a stablecoin 24/7 account funding service, where eligible customers can send USDC from their personal crypto wallets to a secure address provided by Zero Hash (supporting Ethereum, Solana, and Base networks). The funds are automatically converted to USD and credited to the brokerage account within minutes, available around the clock, including weekends and holidays. In the following weeks, support for Ripple's RLUSD and PayPal's PYUSD will also be added.

Interactive Brokers does not charge deposit fees; only low conversion fees are charged by Zero Hash in tiers, with clients only needing to bear blockchain network fees.

This directly addresses the constraints of traditional wire transfers' banking hours and cross-border delays, allowing global investors to instantly inject USD value capital into their accounts, enabling immediate participation in multi-asset trading.

Next, Interactive Brokers turned its focus to BTC/ETH trading and deposits.

In February this year, Interactive Brokers introduced Coinbase Nano Bitcoin and Ethereum futures for 24/7 trading. On March 25, users can directly transfer BTC/ETH from external wallets to Interactive Brokers-linked crypto accounts without the need to first sell and liquidate.

This feature eliminates technical barriers, allowing investors to trade crypto assets on the same platform with lower commissions, achieving unified risk management for stocks, options, futures, and crypto.

Furthermore, the company has expanded its crypto footprint to the European market.

Interactive Brokers, through its Irish subsidiary, has opened crypto asset trading to eligible individual investors in the European Economic Area. Users can trade 11 mainstream crypto assets including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and DOGE alongside stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, funds, and more on the existing platform, with support for 24/7 trading.

Today's foray into the crypto market is the latest testament to Interactive Brokers’ stance as a traditional brokerage firm that "embraces crypto without losing its essence."

As early as September 2021, when Bitcoin had just surpassed $60,000 and crypto was still considered a high-risk fringe asset, Interactive Brokers partnered with the New York State-regulated Paxos Trust Company to pioneer spot trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and BCH. Customers do not need to open a separate crypto account but can request permission in their existing brokerage account to trade 24/7 and withdraw to an external wallet. This "low-cost + unified platform" model was initially aimed at serving professional investors rather than chasing retail speculation hype.

In the following years, Interactive Brokers steadily expanded its product line. By 2025, through Paxos or Zero Hash, they added coins such as Avalanche, Cardano, Chainlink, Dogecoin, Ripple, Solana, and Sui, supporting over 11 mainstream assets.

This "steady expansion followed by accelerated integration" path reflects the unique logic of traditional brokerages exploring crypto. Unlike pure crypto platforms pursuing traffic and leverage, Interactive Brokers sees crypto as an organic part of a multi-asset platform: Stablecoins are no longer just a "digital dollar" but an efficient settlement rail that can be directly converted into trading funds, margin, or idle capital. The CEO team has repeatedly emphasized the goal of making "crypto trading as professional and low-cost as stock trading."

Perhaps the intent behind Interactive Brokers is not difficult to understand. Crypto assets are transitioning from an early speculative narrative to an essential part of institutional portfolio allocation. Clients increasingly need to efficiently manage traditional securities, futures, options, and digital assets on a unified, professional, and low-cost platform to achieve more effective risk hedging, liquidity management, and capital allocation. Without these services, some high-net-worth and institutional clients are likely to shift their crypto-related business to pure crypto trading platforms, leading to reduced overall platform stickiness and fund outflows.

Through initiatives such as 24/7 deposits with stablecoins, direct transfers from external wallets, and innovative products like derivatives, Interactive Brokers has not only significantly reduced the frictional costs of cross-border fund flows and asset migration but has also transformed stablecoins into efficient settlement and margin tools, significantly enhancing customer fund maneuverability and utilization efficiency. This strategy aligns precisely with the company's core strengths — advanced automated trading systems, seamless access to 100+ global markets, and ultra-low-cost execution.

In the crypto market's shift from narrative-driven to institutionally led allocation in 2026, this strategy is proving competitive — clients can monitor stock volatility's impact on their crypto positions on the same screen or swiftly seize global opportunities with stablecoins without the need to switch between multiple apps.

The story of Interactive Brokers is essentially a microcosm of Wall Street's traditional brokerage firms reshaping their positioning through technology and execution capabilities.

Since Thomas Peterffy founded Interactive Brokers in 1978, the company has been focused on developing automated trading systems. According to the latest publicly available data for Q4 2025, Interactive Brokers has reached 4.4 million customer accounts, a 32% year-over-year growth. The net addition of customer accounts exceeded 1 million for the full year 2025, setting an annual record. The full-year commission revenue was approximately $2.1 billion (+27%), with full-year net revenue around $6.205 billion (+20%), and strong average customer returns (individual clients around 19.2%, hedge fund clients around 28.91%).

These hardcore figures validate the contribution of "low commissions + global access + all-in-one platform" to long-term returns and have positioned Interactive Brokers firmly at the intersection of TradFi and Crypto.

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