Good news for prospective cryptocurrency traders who feel more comfortable with major retail brokerage firms. The E*Trade Financial Group, one of the largest online trading platforms for individuals, is reportedly preparing to offer cryptocurrency pairs for new and existing account holders.
According to a report recently published by Bloomberg, E*Trade customers could start trading Bitcoin and Ethereum later this year, and their digital currency holdings would be part of their traditional portfolio accounts. When considering the sheer size of E*Trade, this development is a good sign for the cryptocurrency markets; after all, this is a company that boasts nearly 5 million trading accounts, and it is also one of the most respected names in online trading. Aside from bringing additional liquidity and higher trading volume to the digital currency markets, the advantage of E*Trade getting into crypto trading is that it brings more legitimacy into this world. Many E*Trade customers are casual investors who are more likely to treat Bitcoin and other tokens as long-term investments; however, existing account holders who may have ventured into exchanges could be interested in consolidating their financial activity into a single portfolio.
Trading account consolidation is a good strategy for online retail brokerages to consider when evaluating whether they should embrace digital currencies. For a financial services provider such as Robinhood, for example, this has been a very smart move. Robinhood is a major E*Trade competitor that listened to its account holders when it decided to offer cryptocurrency trading; the company has explained that this has been a major contributor to growth, particularly because it attracts new customers who wish to learn about Bitcoin and the world of digital currencies in general. Now that popular online retail brokerages are offering cryptocurrency trading, established exchanges should pay attention. One of the major reasons these financial services providers have been able to attract millions of customers is that they provide very friendly platforms to beginners, casual traders and traditional investors. Those who are familiar with E*Trade are probably waiting for the day when they can learn about crypto tokens from a platform they can trust. Major digital currency exchange platforms that focus too much on active traders will lose out to E*Trade in terms of attracting newcomers.
