Interactive Brokers opens ETH staking in the Client Portal via Zerohash

Interactive Brokers has opened Ethereum staking to eligible clients inside its Client Portal, with crypto infrastructure firm Zerohash running the staking rails. The product was reported in English by The Block and in French by Journal du Coin on October 13 — the delivery date of the staking-as-a-service pipe Zerohash first announced on June 25, 2026 with Interactive Brokers listed as a launch partner.

What's live

Only ETH staking is available at launch, through the broker's Client Portal. Rewards accrue as additional staked ETH and compound while a position stays staked. The broker has not published rate guidance; validator yields are protocol-driven.

The underlying stack is Zerohash's staking-as-a-service API, which the firm's documentation says has been live for partners since May 21, 2026 and started with Ethereum. Zerohash's own policy, published alongside its June staking rollout, is that service covers most U.S. states except California, Maryland, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Interactive Brokers has not restated that geographic carve-out itself; "eligible clients" is the operative phrase the broker uses in the launch note.

What Interactive Brokers said

Chief executive Milan Galik framed staking as a yield-side extension of existing broker products, drawing the comparison to the firm's Stock Yield Enhancement Program (SYEP), which lets clients earn income on shares they own by making them available for securities lending. The pitch to IBKR's book is the same shape: earn yield on holdings already parked at the broker, without moving them off-platform.

Interactive Brokers' crypto build-out to date:

• 2021 — crypto trading launched.
• Early 2025 — crypto product scope expanded.
• January 2026 — 24/7 account funding with USDC rolled out to support round-the-clock trading of digital assets.
• October 13, 2026 — ETH staking goes live.

How the plumbing works

The broker is not operating validators. Zerohash's service connects partner platforms via a single API that spans deposits, staking execution, and rewards accrual. Per Zerohash's documentation, the model mirrors standard Ethereum validator economics:

• Newly staked ETH enters the activation queue and typically takes 1–4 weeks to start earning rewards.
• Unstaking goes through the Ethereum withdrawal queue; timing is set by the protocol, not the service.
• Rewards are credited in-kind, as more staked ETH.

Zerohash's partner roster for the June launch was Interactive Brokers, Public, and BitMart, with others "to be announced." The IBKR go-live is the first of the three to visibly land in English-language coverage with a working Client Portal flow.

Why this matters

Three structural reads for builders and analysts:

1. Brokerage distribution for native ETH staking. The share of ETH that is staked via regulated U.S. brokers rather than crypto-native platforms (Coinbase, Kraken, Lido-wrapped) ticks up again. The question is how much of IBKR's ETH balance moves to validators — the number is not disclosed, and will not be, except via unstaking queue inflow data.
2. The Zerohash play. Zerohash is positioning itself as the US-regulated staking back-end for financial institutions. Its staking-infrastructure launch release targets banks and brokerages explicitly. The June announcement said rates include no staking minimum. The press release named Interactive Brokers, Public and BitMart.
3. Morgan Stanley's lane. Separate reporting cited in The Block's piece notes that Morgan Stanley has sought a national trust bank charter that would let it custody digital assets and offer staking and trading to investment clients. If approved, the staking-via-broker model competes with staking-via-trust-bank — different regulatory stack, same end-user feature.

Caveats

• The Interactive Brokers announcement does not specify eligibility beyond "eligible clients." Readers in CA, MD, NJ, WI should assume the Zerohash state carve-out carries through unless the broker says otherwise.
• No APY is quoted. ETH's native staking yield has run in the mid-single digits over 2026; the net to Interactive Brokers clients depends on the broker's revenue share with Zerohash, which neither party has published.
• Rewards credited in-kind compound only while the position remains staked. Early unstake has activation-queue costs set by Ethereum, not the broker.

What to watch

1. Second asset. Zerohash flagged Solana as the next asset at the June launch. SOL at Interactive Brokers would be the test of whether the broker widens staking beyond ETH on the same API.
2. Revenue-share disclosure. The clean read on broker economics will come in the next Interactive Brokers quarterly, where any "digital asset services" line could pick up staking fees.
3. Public and BitMart go-live. If Zerohash's two other named launch partners open staking to retail at scale, the staking-as-a-service wedge expands beyond a single brokerage.
4. Trust-bank route. Morgan Stanley's charter decision — whichever way it lands — sets the second rail by which non-crypto-native institutions offer staking.

Context — staking is now a brokerage product line

The 2024 SEC settlements that shut down Kraken's and Coinbase's U.S. staking programs set the regulatory template; the 2025 reversal of parts of that posture reopened the lane. The step this month is the switch from staking as a crypto-exchange feature to staking as a regulated broker's yield product, delivered via API. Interactive Brokers' SYEP comparison is the one it chose for a reason — the pitch to its book is that staking is a sibling of securities lending, not a crypto departure.