Interactive Brokers, an American multinational brokerage firm, will start offering cryptocurrency services by the end of the summer, CNBC has learned, citing Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy. He says the firm's clients have been asking for cryptocurrencies for a long time, which is why the firm is finally ready to offer trading with these assets in the coming months.
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"Customers certainly are asking for [cryptocurrency trading] and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer," Peterffy said.
The Interactive Brokers CEO admits that cryptocurrencies pose big risks and the firm plans to solve this problem after the launch of the new service. Interactive Brokers' announcement comes after the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passed a law according to which bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) becomes legal tender in the country alongside the US dollar.
The country's president, Nayib Bukele, said he will sign the document in the near future, after which the law will come into force "immediately." The country now has 90 days to develop a cryptocurrency payments infrastructure.
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