How Interactive Brokers is Meeting Europe's Increasing Demand for Crypto Assets

OPPORTUNITY

Product parity in a new region

Interactive Brokers already offered eligible US clients access to cryptocurrency through zerohash. When the firm decided to launch crypto asset trading in Europe, it built on that same relationship streamlining a process that would otherwise mean navigating an unfamiliar regulatory landscape. Europe operates under a different framework than the U.S.; the EEA regulates crypto-assets through MiCA, a single licensing regime, alongside separate electronic money rules governing stablecoins and fiat. Expanding into the region meant working with a firm licensed under both.

zerohash is authorized under MiCA by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets and holds a full Electronic Money Institution license and was the first firm to combine both under the region's crypto-asset framework. This dual registration let Interactive Brokers expand into the EEA using the same zerohash  infrastructure and APIs it already relied on in the US. Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited also obtained its own MiCA CASP license.

SOLUTION

Bringing crypto asset trading to the EEA market

Since Interactive Brokers was already a zerohash customer, the EEA launch built on infrastructure it knew well. That familiarity made for a straightforward path from decision to production. zerohash handled licensing and custody, while IBKR focused on bringing crypto-assets onto its existing platform for European clients.

IMPACT

Global scale powered by consistent infrastructure

Bringing crypto-assets to IBKR's EEA clients gives European investors the same core capability US clients already have, without asking them to leave the brokerage platform they know. In practice, that looks like:

Built-in access: EEA clients can trade crypto-assets alongside traditional asset classes on the platform they already use, rather than through a separate exchange or wallet.

Faster global scaling: IBKR could expand its crypto asset services to match demand, without slowing down for market-by-market licensing.

Shared infrastructure, straightforward rollout: A consistent infrastructure layer across regions means capabilities already live in the US could extend to the EEA.

Global adoption trends support the demand behind this launch. Institutional and retail investors alike increasingly treat digital assets as a standard part of a diversified portfolio, not a niche allocation.

TAKEAWAY

Regulated, scalable access to crypto assets

Adding crypto assets in Europe is as much a regulatory decision as a product one. For Interactive Brokers, expanding into the EEA on infrastructure already licensed under MiCA and EMI rules meant meeting client demand without rebuilding its approach market by market. For IBKR's EEA clients, it means crypto trading access inside the same trusted platform they already use to trade traditional investments.