Financial Advisors Managing $110 Trillion Can Now Offer Crypto Trading to Clients via Interactive Brokers

Registered Investment Advisors Can Now Offer Cryptocurrencies to Clients

Global investment firm Interactive Brokers Group (Nasdaq: IBKR) announced Monday the launch of cryptocurrency trading for registered investment advisors (RIAs) in the U.S.

This offering will enable RIAs to “trade and custody bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) via Paxos Trust Company on behalf of clients.” They will be able to manage their clients’ crypto holdings alongside traditional investments, including stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Nearly 14,000 investment advisors registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have reported nearly 61 million clients in 2020, according to a joint study by the Investment Adviser Association and National Regulatory Services. Both numbers are new highs for the industry. In addition, the industry has approximately $110 trillion in total assets under management.

The Interactive Brokers platform has about 1.33 million customer accounts and $330.6 billion in customer equity as of the first quarter. Clients from over 200 countries and territories invest globally in stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds, and funds from a single integrated account.

Steve Sanders, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers, commented:

Allocating a small percentage of assets to cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has steadily become more commonplace, and advisors may wish to recommend cryptocurrency to their clients.

Cryptocurrency trading with Paxos on Interactive Brokers’ RIA platform has commissions of between 0.12% and 0.18% of trade value, depending on monthly volume, the company detailed. Moreover, the notice adds that there are no added spreads, markups, or custodial fees.

The company noted that while the offering is only available to RIAs in the U.S. initially, it plans to “launch the service for financial advisors in other parts of the world, in the future.”

What do you think about RIAs being able to offer clients crypto trading through Interactive Brokers? Let us know in the comments section below.