FTX US, which is the American subsidiary of the global crypto exchange, FTX, launched commission-free stock trading services to all the customers in the United States.
The service was initially opened to a group of existing FTX US users, who were originally onboarded to trade cryptocurrencies . However, now the stock trading service is available even to non-crypto traders across all 50 US states.
The entrance of the crypto exchange into mainstream stock trading is expected to expand its customer base and increase assets under custody.
“It will be very interesting when we open it to all to see how many FTX US users start to trade stocks, and to what extent we will be able to bring new users,” the President of FTX US, Brett Harrison told Bloomberg in an interview.
As seen on the FTX US platform, it is offering trading with US-listed stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and depository receipts. For now, it is offering 50 stocks of American companies that are highly in demand including Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Paypal, among others.
However, FTX US is not stopping here. The platform has further plans of offering options trading, but it did not provide any details of when it will be launching that service.
Competition in the Retail Stock Trading Space
Earlier, FTX’s Founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried purchased a 7.6 percent stake in Robinhood, a zero-fee retail stock trading platform that disrupted the entire industry’s business model. Though there were reports of FTX’s willingness to acquire Robinhood, Bankman-Fried denied any active ongoing merger talks.
Meanwhile, FTX US strengthened its position in the stock trading sector with the acquisition of Embed Financial Technologies, the parent company of the clearing firm, Embed Clearing, last June.
