Interactive Brokers, a big U.S. online brokerage firm, announced plans Wednesday to offer cryptocurrency trading “by the end of the summer.”
The announcement came from CEO Thomas Peterffy during the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference.
“Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading] and we expect to be ready to offer it,” Peterffy said, according to CNBC.
The company currently offers bitcoin futures trading on its platform. The Interactive Brokers cryptocurrency move could distinguish the company from rivals like Charles Schwab and Fidelity, which have yet to offer crypto trading but do provide access to related funds.
Interactive Brokers had 1.33 million customer accounts and about $330 billion of customer assets as of March 31, based on the latest quarterly figures.