Interactive Brokers will now allow individual investors to fund their personal brokerage accounts with stablecoins, a move aimed at keeping pace with the increasingly competitive retail trading market, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The Greenwich, Conn.-based brokerage, which competes with rivals such as Robinhood Markets Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co., expanded its crypto trading capabilities along with offering stocks, options and futures earlier this year.
The development highlights how traditional brokerages are increasingly incorporating features linked to cryptocurrencies to retain retail clients as digital assets gain a stronger foothold in mainstream finance. By allowing stablecoins to be used to fund accounts, Interactive Brokers joins a growing group of companies testing blockchain-based payment rails to reduce friction and speed up transfers, keeping pace with rivals such as Robinhood that are expanding more aggressively into cryptocurrencies.
An Interactive Brokers spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The company’s chairman, Thomas Peterhuti, first announced the new feature at a Goldman Sachs conference on Wednesday.
Stablecoins allow customers to deposit funds into their accounts directly from their crypto wallets rather than their bank accounts.
Interactive Brokers has also been active in adjacent crypto markets, including prediction markets related to economic events.
In October, Interactive Brokers led a $104 million funding round for cryptocurrency and stablecoin infrastructure provider Zerohash, valuing the company at $1 billion. This comes several months after Peterffy told Reuters the company was considering issuing its own stablecoin, while also allowing customers to fund their accounts using tokens issued by third parties.
The company did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
