Interactive Brokers now allows UK clients to trade crypto

The British arm of Interactive Brokers, known as Interactive Brokers U.K. Limited (IBUK), has launched cryptocurrency trading for its clients.

According to a press release on Businesswire, IBUK’s investors and financial advisors can start trading Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) through the Interactive Brokers platform.

In addition to the listed cryptocurrencies, investors can trade other investment products such as stocks, futures, options, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and fiat currencies on a “unified platform,” per the announcement.

Moreover, crypto commissions are set between 0.12% and 0.18% for the IBUK clients. The fees will also depend on the monthly trading volume and there are no custody fees, per the press release. 

It’s important to note that Interactive Brokers is one of the largest electronic trading platforms with its total assets on the balance sheet reaching roughly $128.42 billion as of December 2023. Last year, the company generated a total of $4.34 billion in revenue, per its public data.

Notably, the U.K. is one of many regions for Interactive Brokers to offer crypto-related services. On November 24, 2023, the company received a cryptocurrency trading license in Hong Kong. 

Five days later, Interactive Brokers teamed up with another brokerage platform, called OSL, to offer crypto trading for retail investors within the region. 

In April 2023, the founder of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, said that cryptocurrencies do not have any value despite owning some digital assets.