Interactive Brokers and Paxos Launched Bitcoin Trading Services to Institutions

The American multinational brokerage firm – Interactive Brokers Group – allowed its clients to trade and custody four of the leading cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Its partner in the initiative is Paxos Trust Company.

IBKR Catching The Crypto Wave

According to a recent press release, the global brokerage organization – Interactive Brokers Group (Nasdaq: IBKR) has joined forces with the blockchain infrastructure platform – Paxos Trust Company – to launch digital asset services to its customers. The new product includes trading some of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Namely, those are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

The trading commissions on Interactive Brokers range between 0.12% and 0.18% depending on monthly volume, as clients can make use of the new offering with a $1.75 minimum per order.

Milan Galik – Chief Executive Officer of the US brokerage firm – noted that the main reason to launch the digital asset service is the growing interest from institutional investors:

“In giving our clients access to cryptocurrency trading, we recognize the need to meet the growing investor demand to trade cryptocurrency alongside other asset classes in a convenient and low-cost way.”

In his turn, Charles Cascarilla – CEO and Co-Founder of Paxos – praised the collaboration with Interactive Brokers. He opined that the new crypto opportunity could turn to be highly beneficial to both parties’ clients:

“Paxos provides the regulated blockchain infrastructure to ensure enterprises can enable crypto safely and with reduced risk. Our collaboration with Interactive Brokers allows experienced investors to have fast, reliable access to the digital economy for the first time.”

The Promise Was Delivered

It is worth noting that at the beginning of June, Interactive Brokers vowed to launch the aforementioned cryptocurrency service. The brokerage company was also quite precise with its timing as Thomas Peterffy – Chairman of the firm – stated this would happen by the end of summer 2021:

“Customers certainly are asking for cryptocurrency trading and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer.”

Interactive Brokers Group operates one of the largest electronic trading platforms in the US by means of daily average revenue trades. It reportedly has nearly 1.5 million registered clients accounts. While its headquarter is in Greenwich, Connecticut, it has 24 more offices in 14 different countries.

Featured Image Courtesy of WealthManagement