Interactive Brokers Adds Ethereum Staking via Zerohash

Interactive Brokers said on Oct. 13 that eligible Interactive Brokers LLC clients can now stake Ethereum through the broker, with crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash handling the staking service. The announcement came from a brokerage that reports more than $903 billion in client assets and serves over 5 million clients worldwide, as detailed by Crypto.news.

The service is available through the Staking Dashboard in IBKR’s Client Portal, where clients can request or cancel staking and follow pending activity. Rewards are credited as additional staked cryptocurrency and can compound while the position remains staked. PANews also reported the launch, citing Solid Intel, the same day.

How the staking feature fits into IBKR’s crypto stack

The staking rollout extends a crypto offering that has been assembled incrementally over the past year. Before staking, Interactive Brokers added a way for customers to move existing crypto positions onto its platform: as crypto.news reported on March 25, eligible clients could transfer supported assets from external wallets into IBKR-linked crypto accounts without selling first, with holdings placed in accounts at Paxos or Zerohash and Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana among the available assets.

Stablecoin funding arrived earlier. Under a Jan. 16 report, Zerohash processed USDC deposits across Ethereum, Solana and Base, converting the tokens into dollars and crediting the proceeds to brokerage accounts, with RLUSD and PayPal USD support scheduled for the week of Jan. 19. IBKR charged no deposit fee while Zerohash applied a 0.30% conversion fee with a $1 minimum. A July 14 announcement introduced withdrawals through automatic conversion of dollars into USDC, PYUSD or RLUSD, and added nine tokens through Zerohash and three through Paxos; the company said availability depended on the relevant affiliate and the customer’s country of residence, and that bidirectional stablecoin funding was unavailable to clients of its U.K. and Ireland entities.

Trading costs have also been published. According to the March report, commissions ranged from 0.12% to 0.18% of trade value, subject to a $1.75 minimum per order, and the pricing excluded added spreads and markups.

Zerohash’s parallel bid for a national trust charter

The provider behind the staking service has separately sought federal banking authorization. Per a crypto.news report on Aug. 26, Zerohash filed a second trust bank application, recorded by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Aug. 19. The proposed Zerohash National Trust Bank would be based in Asheville, North Carolina, and operate under a holding company structure if approved, with the filing requesting trust powers from the regulator.

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The OCC’s records showed the agency received the first application on March 2 and returned it on July 17, the report said. For the second filing, the regulator opened a public comment period with a Sep. 17 deadline, and the record was listed as received at the time of that report. Zerohash’s existing regulatory arrangements included a North Carolina-chartered nondepository trust company, money transmitter licenses and a New York BitLicense, according to company documentation cited in the coverage.

Beyond crypto spot and staking, IBKR introduced Coinbase Derivatives nano Bitcoin and nano Ether futures on Feb. 10, with monthly expirations and perpetual-style contracts representing 0.01 Bitcoin and 0.10 Ether. The contracts trade around the clock except for scheduled exchange maintenance on Fridays between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern time, and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. On May 14, the company launched a combined prediction-market interface connecting Kalshi, CME Group and ForecastEx, letting customers search similar contracts, compare prices and fees, and trade without separate accounts at each venue, with the system selecting the venue offering the best available net price. The company said the offering would focus on election outcomes, climate events and economic indicators, with Kalshi and CME contracts added on a rolling basis, and it restricts forecast contracts on U.S. election results to eligible U.S. residents.

Why it matters

For clients who already hold Ethereum inside a brokerage account, staking turns an idle position into one that can generate rewards under the same roof as stocks, options and futures. It also widens the gap between full-service brokers offering regulated staking and crypto-native platforms, at a time when large asset managers have been pushing staking into mainstream fund structures. The feature gives IBKR a way to keep crypto assets on its platform rather than see clients move coins to an external staking service, which matters for a company whose crypto revenue depends on trading and ancillary services.

What to watch

The OCC’s handling of Zerohash’s second national trust bank application is the most concrete development to track, since approval or rejection would shape the regulatory footing of the provider underpinning IBKR’s staking service. In the interim, IBKR’s own disclosures note that availability depends on the affiliate and the customer’s country of residence, so the practical rollout across the broker’s entities will be the next signal for clients outside the initial Interactive Brokers LLC cohort.

Sources: crypto.news, PANews