Interactive Brokers set to launch crypto trading service soon

Interactive Brokers has revealed that it will start offering cryptocurrency trading services to its clients by the end of the summer.

Popular brokerage platform Interactive Brokers announced yesterday that it would launch cryptocurrency trading services by the end of the summer. The company said it is entering the crypto market thanks to numerous requests from its clients.

Interactive Brokers Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy revealed this while speaking at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference. He stated that “Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading], and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer.”

Interactive Brokers already allows its users to trade Bitcoin futures on its platform. However, this would be the first time it would offer actual cryptocurrency trading services to its clients. The cryptocurrency market has experienced massive growth over the past few months.

The market has experienced perhaps the biggest adoption period in recent history, with numerous retail and institutional investors adopting Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. As the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to increase, traditional financial institutions are entering the cryptocurrency market and providing crypto-related services to their clients.

Interactive Broker’s major rivals Fidelity and Charles Schwab are yet to offer cryptocurrency trading services on their platforms. However, they offer access to some crypto-related funds.

The cryptocurrency market has been locked in a bearish trend in recent weeks, with several coins losing more than 50% of their values. Bitcoin is trading at $36,000 per coin, down from its all-time high of $65,000.

Despite the current market situations, several analysts consider the cryptocurrencies to be a ‘Buy’ at the moment as they believe prices will bounce back in the medium and long term.