I called IB yesturday because I was curious about this. The rep "Crystal K" informed me IB has gotten rid of their minimum account balance of 10k. It's only 2,000 now. Like the guy above me said, it comes down to wether you can do 10$ in commissions a month. They realize they are missing out by having a high minimum with all these guys going to robinhood and tastyworks. Nice change im glad they did it.