Interactive Brokers has started letting eligible clients stake Ethereum through its Client Portal. The brokerage is using zerohash to handle the Ethereum staking service. The move puts a staking product inside a traditional brokerage account, where customers already trade stocks, options, and futures.
Staking inside a brokerage account
Interactive Brokers clients who qualify can stake ETH without moving the asset to a separate crypto platform. The staking happens through the Client Portal, the same interface used for regular brokerage activity. zerohash, a crypto infrastructure provider, runs the staking side of the operation. That setup keeps Interactive Brokers out of the validator business directly, while still giving clients a way to earn on their Ethereum holdings.
Why zerohash gets the backend
Brokerages have been slow to build staking infrastructure in-house. It's a technical and regulatory chore — running validators, managing slashing risk, handling the tax reporting. zerohash already provides crypto services to financial firms, so Interactive Brokers can plug into an existing pipeline rather than start from scratch. For clients, the practical effect is that staking looks like another account feature, not a separate crypto product with its own login and withdrawal rules.
What eligible clients can actually do
The staking option is limited to eligible clients, though the specific eligibility criteria weren't detailed. What's clear is that the service runs through the Client Portal and uses zerohash as the staking provider. It's an opt-in feature, not something applied to all ETH balances automatically. Clients who want in have to go through the portal to enable it.
The competitive squeeze
Interactive Brokers isn't the first brokerage to eye crypto staking, but it's one of the larger names to fold ETH staking into a mainstream trading account. Rivals that already offer spot crypto trading will now face questions about why they don't offer staking too. The pitch is straightforward: if you're holding ETH in your brokerage account anyway, staking turns a dormant position into a yield-bearing one. Whether clients bite depends on how the feature is priced and how much of the reward Interactive Brokers and zerohash take as a cut — details that haven't been disclosed.
The company hasn't said when the feature will expand to more assets or more client tiers. For now, Ethereum is the only staking option on the table, and eligibility is the gate. Clients who don't qualify will have to wait for the next rollout.
