Interactive Brokers to offer crypto trading by the end of summer

NEW YORK: Interactive Brokers Group Inc plans to begin offering cryptocurrency trading through its brokerage within a few months, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday.

“Customers are asking for it and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer,” Interactive Brokers founder and chairman Thomas Peterffy said at a conference held by Piper Sandler.

Peterffy did not say which cryptocurrencies would be available to trade, but the New York-based brokerage began offering bitcoin futures in December 2017.

The biggest hurdle to offering crypto-trading has been ensuring Interactive Brokers can keep its customers’ digital coins safe, Peterffy added.

“Think about it, how do you make it 100% sure that no one will steal their coins in spite of the fact that they are untraceable,” he said.