Interactive Brokers, one of the largest online brokerages in the U.S., switched on cryptocurrency staking for eligible clients on October 13, starting with Ethereum. The service is run by crypto infrastructure firm zerohash and sits inside the broker’s existing Client Portal, so a client can hold stocks, options, futures and staked ETH in the same place.
The headline is simple, and it spread quickly on X. Crypto Briefing and BlockNews were among the accounts posting the news within the first hour. But the more useful story is in the details: who actually holds the ETH, what share of rewards clients keep, and how long it can take to get out. Interactive Brokers’ own risk disclosure answers most of those questions.
What launched
According to The Block and Crypto Briefing, eligible Interactive Brokers LLC clients can now:
- Submit stake and unstake requests through a Staking Dashboard in the Client Portal.
- Monitor pending staking activity in the same dashboard.
- Receive rewards, when earned, as additional staked ETH, which can compound while the position stays staked.
Ethereum is the only supported asset at launch. Availability depends on which Interactive Brokers affiliate a client uses and their country of residence, so this is initially a U.S. offering through Interactive Brokers LLC rather than a global rollout.
CEO Milan Galik framed it as a familiar idea for the broker’s customers. “Similar to how our Stock Yield Enhancement Program allows clients to earn additional income on shares they own, staking gives clients an opportunity to earn rewards on the cryptocurrency they own,” he said in the release, as quoted by The Block. “We want clients to earn more from the assets they hold.”
How it fits into IBKR’s crypto build-out
Staking is the latest step in a steady expansion rather than a sudden pivot. Crypto Briefing lays out the timeline:
- September 2021: Interactive Brokers launched direct crypto trading through Paxos, starting with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
- January 2026: The broker introduced USDC account funding. Its stablecoin services now support USDC, Ripple’s RLUSD and PayPal’s PYUSD for eligible clients.
- June 2026: zerohash announced staking infrastructure for brokerages, banks and fintechs, and Galik said then that Interactive Brokers planned to offer staking.
- July 2026: It added nine tokens through zerohash and three through Paxos, bringing its zerohash lineup to 20 digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and NEAR.
The broader trend is that services once found mainly on crypto-native exchanges are moving into traditional brokerage accounts. The Block notes that Morgan Stanley has also reportedly sought a national trust bank charter that would let it custody digital assets and offer staking and trading to its investment clients.
The fine print: who holds your ETH
The most important thing to understand is that the staked ETH is not held at Interactive Brokers. The broker’s risk disclosure for trading and staking digital assets with Zero Hash, dated September 25, 2026, explains that U.S. broker-dealers generally cannot custody non-securities digital assets. Instead, clients open a separate account in their own name at Zero Hash, which acts as custodian and counterparty for crypto trades and staking.
That has a few direct consequences, all stated in the disclosure:
- No SIPC or FDIC coverage. Holdings in the Zero Hash account, including staked assets, are not protected by SIPC or FDIC insurance if Zero Hash or Interactive Brokers becomes insolvent.
- Interactive Brokers is only the access point. It does not run validators, operate nodes, or have custody of the staked assets, and it cannot reverse or modify a staking instruction once it has been sent to Zero Hash.
- Pooled, off-chain records. Zero Hash may batch client staking requests into a single omnibus wallet. Individual stakes and rewards may not appear on the public blockchain, so clients rely on Zero Hash’s internal books. The disclosure warns that in a failure or insolvency, recovering specific staked assets may be limited or delayed.
- No margin value. Crypto held at Zero Hash isn’t counted toward margin requirements in the client’s IBKR account.
None of this is unusual for a brokerage crypto product in the U.S., but it is meaningfully different from staking ETH from a self-custodied wallet, where the holder can verify their own balance on-chain.
Fees, timing and lock-ups
On cost, Interactive Brokers’ client agreement supplement says the combined fees charged by IB and Zero Hash on staking rewards will not exceed 30%, meaning clients are entitled to at least 70% of rewards. Fees are taken from rewards, not from principal, and only when rewards are actually earned. Neither the launch coverage nor the disclosure we reviewed states an expected reward rate.
On timing, the risk disclosure says:
- Some assets can take up to five days after Zero Hash receives an instruction to be fully staked and begin earning rewards.
- Staked assets may be subject to a network lock-up period during which they can’t be sold or transferred.
- Unstaking may take several weeks, depending on the asset and network conditions, and is not guaranteed to finish in any set time.
That last point matters for anyone used to selling a stock and getting cash in a day or two. ETH can move sharply in price during an unstaking queue, and the disclosure is explicit that the client carries that price risk. It also lists slashing, a protocol penalty when a validator misbehaves, as a risk that could reduce rewards or even part of the staked balance.
Finally, the disclosure notes that staking rewards may be taxable income and that Zero Hash may report reward activity to the IRS where required.
What it means for Ethereum
For Ethereum, the significance is less about any single broker and more about distribution. Staking turns ETH into an asset that can produce a yield in ETH terms, and putting that option one click away from a stock portfolio makes it easier for traditional investors to think about ETH the way they think about income-generating holdings. Several posts on X, like this one from AiBeamNews, made the same caution we would: the launch release itself didn’t give an APR, and exits are request-based rather than instant.
It also adds to the share of staked ETH running through large, regulated custodians. That’s convenient for users, but it’s a trend the Ethereum community watches closely, because concentration among a few big staking providers is a long-running decentralization concern.
The bottom line
Interactive Brokers’ ETH staking is a real expansion of what a mainstream brokerage account can do, and the terms are clearly documented: zerohash holds the assets, clients keep at least 70% of rewards, there’s no SIPC or FDIC protection, and getting out can take weeks. Anyone considering it should read the disclosure in full and compare it with other ways to stake, including self-custody and liquid staking, before deciding.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment or tax advice. Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose money. Do your own research.