Interactive Brokers Group's second-quarter net revenue rose28% to $1.90 billion, and most coverage focused on the headline growth. A FMIntelligence deep dive looks at how that growth was built, and finds abalance-sheet story rather than a rate story.The full breakdown sits on the FMIntelligence DataLab portal, which traces where the activity actually camefrom over the past ten quarters.Margin Loans Up 67% While Accounts Rose 34%Customer margin loans reached $108.5 billion at the end ofJune, up 67% from a year earlier. That outpaced the 34% rise in customeraccounts, to 5.19 million, and the 40% rise in customer equity, to $930.3billion.Borrowing per account rose about 24%, to roughly $20,900,and margin loans equalled 11.7% of customer equity, the highest reading in theperiod the analysis covers.Net interest income rose 23% to $1.06 billion, yet netinterest margin fell to 1.93% from 2.07%, a sixth straight year-over-yeardecline, as the yield on margin loans dropped to 4.10%. The growth came from alarger balance sheet, not higher rates. Interactive Brokers' headline resultswere coveredseparately by FinanceMagnates.com.What the Deep Dive Projects for the Second HalfUsing the rate sensitivity Interactive Brokers discloses,about $82 million of annual net interest income for each 0.25 point move in USdollar rates, FM Intelligence models 2026 net interest income in a range of$3.95 billion to $4.30 billion, with a base case near $4.15 billion.The scenarios turn on the rate path, which has shifted fromthe cuts assumed for much of 2025 toward a hold or a modest rise, and on howfast customer balances grow. The figures are FM Intelligence estimates, set outas base, bull and bear cases.The Digital-Assets Read-ThroughBroadening retail activity also points beyond equities. PaulHoward, senior director at digital-asset liquidity provider Wincent, saidInteractive Brokers' results confirm retail trading remains active acrossequities, commodities and derivatives, and that AI-driven tools are loweringthe barrier to more complex products. He expects digital assets to take a larger role in thesecond half as investors rotate into markets that have lagged the year's rally."I expect crypto trading volumes to once again exceed$100 billion during H2," Howard said.That call runs ahead of recent data: retail order flowrebounded in June while crypto trailed the move, as FinanceMagnates.comreported.The full analysis, charts and scenario tables are onthe FMIntelligence DataLab portal.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.