Interactive Brokers, a benchmark firm in the traditional brokerage sector, has announced that it will now allow traders to fund their accounts using the US dollar stablecoin (USDC) issued by Circle around the clock, effective immediately. This move unlocks a crucial new capability—24/7 trading.
In a statement released on Thursday, Interactive Brokers highlighted that compared to traditional funding methods like wire transfers, stablecoins offer advantages such as faster receipt of funds, lower costs, and global usability. They also enable investors to conduct trades outside of local business hours—a feature described as "unattainable with traditional wire transfer services."
Milan Galik, CEO of Interactive Brokers, stated in the announcement, "The stablecoin funding model provides international investors with the speed and flexibility required by today's markets. Clients can complete fund transfers and begin trading within minutes, while also reducing transaction costs."
The integration of this stablecoin functionality is supported by technical infrastructure from Zerohash, a B2B provider of cryptocurrency and stablecoin services. It was reported that Interactive Brokers initially opened USDC funding for individual securities accounts to retail investors as early as December of last year.
Users can transfer USDC from their personal cryptocurrency wallets to a "secure wallet" generated by Zerohash on the Ethereum, Solana, and Base public blockchains—these three chains are the initially supported networks. Once the funds are received, the USDC is automatically converted to U.S. dollars and credited to the client's securities account.
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