invezz.com
Interactive Brokers, one of the leading brokerage firms, has announced it will be extending its services to financial advisors in the US. These parties can now use the platform to trade cryptocurrencies on behalf of their clients.
Offer Crypto Trading in the US
In the press release, Interactive Brokers stated that the digital assets available to these financial advisory firms would include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis? Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.
Interactive Brokers is one of the leading online brokerage firms. Among the firm’s competitors include Fidelity. To launch this new service in the US, the brokerage firm partnered with Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure firm.
Financial advisors who seek the services of this brokerage firm will manage the trading positions of their clients in not only cryptocurrencies but also other investment vehicles such as bonds, ETFs, futures, mutual funds, stocks and options.
Interactive Brokers announced lower commissions of between 0.12% to $0.18% of trade value to attract financial advisors into using this platform. The announcement further stated that this new service would only be restricted to financial advisory firms in the US, but the firm was also planning to launch the service in different countries.
Crypto to Diversify Investment Portfolios
Commenting on this development, Steve Sanders, the EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers, said that cryptocurrencies were becoming a common tool for investors who want to diversify their portfolios. He also noted that financial advisors were also recommending cryptocurrencies to their clients due to the growth of this asset class.
Sanders added,
Adding cryptocurrency trading underscores our ongoing dedication to providing advisors with the investment products and tools they need to successfully manage client portfolios and grow their businesses.
In June, Sanders published a survey depicting that cryptocurrencies were in high demand. The survey results showed that 49% of financial advisory firms had received questions from their clients about investing in cryptocurrencies.
Financial advisory firms are still reluctant to use digital assets to diversify their clients’ portfolios despite this demand. Only 14% of the firms involved in the survey recommended digital assets to their clients.