Retail brokerage firm E*Trade is planning to introduce cryptocurrency trading services on its platform, according to a Bloomberg report.
In the initial phase, E*Trade is considering to introduce only Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services, however, it has plans of adding other digital currencies in the future.
In the wake of TD Ameritrade quietly opening Bitcoin trading for some of its customers, I was just told that eTrade is preparing to begin offering both Bitcoin and Ether trading to its 5 million or so customers and is just finalizing a third party to actually hold the coins.
— Nathaniel Popper (@nathanielpopper) April 26, 2019
This might be a massive breakthrough for crypto as the New York-headquartered company is one of the largest securities brokerages with around 5 million customers, as reported by the firm in its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Services (SEC) in December.
Impressive quarterly results
The company’s business is also booming as its profits surged 17 percent in the last quarter with an addition of 135,000 new brokerage accounts on a net basis, as per The Wall Street Journal.
E*Trade is not the only securities brokerage to jump in the crypto trading space as its market competitor Robinhood is already offering crypto trading services in the US market. The company launched the crypto-based services in February 2018 when the market was gearing for a slump. However, its commission-free business model attracted a huge number of traders on the platform which boosted its valuation to $5.6 billion.
Earlier this year, Robinhood received BitLicense from the regulators of the state of New York to expand its trading services with a digital coin in the state.
Apart from E*Trade, TD Ameritrade is also working with crypto exchange ErisX to bring spot trading services for digital currencies, The Block reported recently. The Omaha-based brokerage company has 11 million clients on its platform.
