Interactive Brokers has added ETH staking through zerohash as 43.7 million ETH sits with validators. Rewards vary, fees are undisclosed beyond a 30% cap, and withdrawals can take weeks.
On October 13, 2026, Interactive Brokers made Ethereum staking available to eligible Interactive Brokers LLC clients. They can use the Staking Dashboard in the brokerage's Client Portal to submit staking or unstaking requests and track pending activity. ETH is the only asset supported at launch. zerohash provides the staking infrastructure.
Access depends on a client's jurisdiction, Interactive Brokers affiliate and account type, so the launch does not cover every customer. Clients already manage digital assets through the brokerage alongside traditional investments. The new service adds staking to that setup, but Interactive Brokers does not operate Ethereum validators itself.
Getting ETH back can take time.
Validatorqueue.com showed about 962,000 ETH waiting to exit validators, with an estimated wait of nearly 17 days before additional withdrawal processing. That estimate moves with network demand. Interactive Brokers has not guaranteed how long customer withdrawals will take.
The network-wide totals are large. Validatorqueue.com, using data from beacon.chаin, put staked ETH at about 43.7 million, or 35.77% of circulating supply. At an ETH price near $2,500, that was worth roughly $110 billion. Those figures describe the Ethereum network, not deposits through Interactive Brokers.
Institutional staking grew even as ETH lost value. Lido's first-half report said total staked ETH rose 19%, reaching 43.1 million by June 30 from 36.3 million at the start of January. Over the same period, ETH's dollar value fell 47%. Institutions' share of staked ETH climbed to 35.3% from 25.9%, while Lido's own share slipped to 21.2% from 23.9%, despite more ETH being deposited through its protocol.
Interactive Brokers is adding staking to accounts where clients can already trade stocks, bonds and futures. Digital assets are also available through the platform. CEO Milan Galik compared the service with the brokerage's Stock Yield Enhancement Program, which lets customers earn income by lending eligible shares. Crypto.news reported that Interactive Brokers had more than $903 billion in client assets. That figure covers the brokerage's overall business, not ETH holdings or staking deposits.
Rewards, when earned, are paid in additional staked ETH and may compound while the holdings remain staked. Interactive Brokers and zerohash take their charges from rewards before distribution. Their combined fee is capped at 30% of the reward, and there is no fee if staking earns nothing, Finance Magnates reported. The cap applies to rewards, not the customer's staked principal. The brokerage has disclosed neither a fixed annual yield nor a customer-specific staking fee rate. Its advertised crypto trading commissions of 0.12% to 0.18% are separate and do not set the cost of staking.
Staked ETH cannot be sold or transferred immediately. Customers must request unstaking, then wait for Ethereum's validator exit process and any further withdrawal processing. During that wait, ETH's price can move, changing the dollar value of the eventual withdrawal. Validator misconduct can trigger slashing, a protocol penalty that reduces staked assets. Service interruptions may delay rewards or temporarily block staking or withdrawals. Returns are not guaranteed.
Cryptocurrency held through Interactive Brokers' crypto providers is outside the brokerage's custody and is not covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. Assets held at zerohash do not receive equivalent SIPC protection or the standard protections for securities in an Interactive Brokers brokerage account. This concerns custody and account protection, not the staking reward itself. It is separate from ASIC's proposed CFD safeguards, which concern qualifying retail derivatives settled in digital assets rather than access to staked ETH.
The service depends on both Interactive Brokers' eligibility and service arrangements and Ethereum's network-level withdrawal queue. A dashboard request does not give a customer immediate access to ETH; processing depends on validator exits and network withdrawals. Interactive Brokers has announced no guaranteed timeline for completing customer withdrawals.
In May 2025, the SEC Division of Corporation Finance issued staff guidance stating that protocol staking, including custodial staking arranged through a third party, does not involve the offer and sale of securities. That guidance is a staff position, not a formal SEC rule. Interactive Brokers' product disclosures also make customers responsible for losses tied to zerohash or the staking process, including slashing.
Rewards are paid in ETH, not a fixed dollar amount. Fees reduce the ETH distributed, while the token's dollar price can change during the lockup. Compounding can increase the ETH balance when rewards remain staked, but it does not eliminate price exposure, slashing risk or withdrawal delays. Interactive Brokers announced the service for eligible clients through its Client Portal staking dashboard.
