Interactive Brokers will now allow retail investors to fund individual brokerage accounts with stablecoins, a move aimed at keeping pace with the increasingly competitive retail trading market, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The Greenwich, Connecticut-based brokerage firm competes with rivals such as 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 brokers are increasingly incorporating crypto-linked features to retain retail clients as digital assets gain a firmer foothold in mainstream finance. Allowing stablecoins to be used for account funding places Interactive Brokers among a growing group of companies testing blockchain-based payment pathways to reduce friction and speed up transfers, while keeping pace with rivals like Robinhood, which have expanded more aggressively into cryptocurrencies.
The company will gradually introduce the feature, starting with a portion of eligible US clients, an Interactive Brokers spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement. Company President 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 tied 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. That came months after Peterffy told Reuters the company was exploring the possibility of issuing its own stablecoin, while also considering allowing customers to fund accounts using tokens issued by third parties.
The company did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
