TD Ameritrade Cites Blockchain Stock Interest in Q1 Results

TD Ameritrade said on Monday that the first quarter of the fiscal year 2018 was a strong one, buoyed in part by interested in stocks related to blockchain.

In announcing the results, the investment services firm said that it added $26.5 billion in new client assets, with net revenues of $1.3 billion during the period (driven primarily by assets, according to the post).

In statements, TD Ameritrade CEO Tim Hockey said that the company saw significant trading volumes during the quarter – an average of 726,000 per day – and that this state of affairs was driven in part by interest among investors in stocks tied to the nascent blockchain and cannabis services industries.

"Trading was at record levels, and investor engagement has continued across all client segments as the market reached new highs. Enhanced consumer interest in blockchain and cannabis-related securities drove a further surge in engagement in the final weeks of the quarter, particularly among first-time investors," Hockey said.

The past few months have seen a range of companies purportedly shift their focus to blockchain – a move that has more often than not been followed by a rise in their public stock prices.

Yet whether this trend will continue remains to be seen. On Monday, the head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, revealed that the agency would look into whether companies announcing such moves are adhering to investor disclosure standards.

"The SEC is looking closely at the disclosures of public companies that shift their business models to capitalize on the perceived promise of distributed ledger technology and whether the disclosures comply with the securities laws, particularly in the case of an offering," Clayton said during an event in Washington, D.C. yesterday.

Image Credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com