Brokerage giant Interactive Brokers has announced that registered financial advisors from the U.S. will now be able to use the platform in order to trade cryptocurrencies on behalf of their clients, according to an Oct. 18 press release.
The list of available digital assets includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
One of the leading online brokerage companies, which competes with the likes of Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, enabled support for cryptocurrency trading after partnering with a blockchain infrastructure firm named Paxos.
Steve Sanders, the company's executive vice president of marketing and product development, acknowledged the growing importance of cryptocurrencies in diversified portfolios:
Allocating a small percentage of assets to cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has steadily become more commonplace, and advisors may wish to recommend cryptocurrency to their clients.According to a survey published this June, 49% of financial advisors said that they had received inquiries from clients about investing in cryptocurrencies.
Yet only 14% of them recommended that their users diversify their portfolios with the help of digital assets.