How Interactive Brokers Gives Clients in Emerging Markets Stablecoins as a Funding Alternative to Cross-Border Bank Transfer

OPPORTUNITY

A funding alternative for emerging markets

For clients funding their accounts from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and other markets with mature banking infrastructure, bank transfers are cheap and fast. The real friction shows up for clients in emerging markets, where dollar cross-border transfers route through correspondent banks, carry high currency conversion markups, have international wire fees and can take days to arrive. For those clients, funding an account has historically cost more and taken longer than it should.

Interactive Brokers entered this landscape when it launched stablecoin funding with zerohash. At its scale, that access matters: As of Q2 2026: IBKR serves more than 5 million client accounts, up 34% year-over-year, and $930.3 billion in client equity, up 40%, across a global base of individual investors, hedge funds, and institutions trading in more than 170 markets. This includes a meaningful share in regions where traditional cross-border banking rails are slow, costly, or limited.

For a brokerage this size, giving clients in emerging markets a direct, dollar-denominated path to fund their accounts, without the delays and fees of cross border bank transfers, has a direct bearing on whether they can participate in global markets at all.

SOLUTION

Client-first product innovation within a familiar API

Interactive Brokers approached stablecoin funding as a longstanding zerohash partner, already running on its crypto infrastructure products and already familiar with their APIs.

Due to the modular nature of zerohash's platform, Interactive Brokers simply extended the stack it already trusted with a new capability built on the same underlying rails. zerohash handled generation of wallet for receiving stablecoins, blockchain support across Ethereum, Solana, and Base at launch, stablecoin-to-dollar conversion, and dollar settlement. IBKR focused on the client-facing experience.

IMPACT

More flexibility, less friction for emerging market clients

Stablecoin funding gives clients in emerging markets a more direct, lower-cost path into their accounts, without touching how clients elsewhere already fund theirs. In practice, that shows up in a few ways: IBKR clients have a new lever to pull when timing matters, without touching how they already fund accounts today:

• A direct, dollar-denominated way to fund accounts from markets where correspondent banking adds cost and delay
• Less friction for clients already holding stablecoins, giving them a direct path between crypto and brokerage balances
• Broader access to global markets for clients in regions where traditional banking infrastructure has been a real barrier to participation

The adoption patterns and volume growth confirm this was a very successful integration.

TAKEAWAY

Regulated, scalable access to crypto assets

Stablecoin funding is an access decision as much as an infrastructure one. For a nearly 50-year-old brokerage with a global client base, it signals a direct response to a real cost and access gap for clients in emerging markets. For those clients, it means one less barrier between having capital and putting it to work in global markets, regardless of where they bank.