Schwab Crypto is now open to all eligible Schwab clients. Clients can begin moving existing crypto holdings onto Schwab’s platform. Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink are scheduled to arrive by
Charles Schwab, the US brokerage that oversees $13.33 trillion in client assets, has opened its direct crypto trading service to every eligible client and started letting customers move existing coins onto its platform, CEO Rick Wurster said during the company’s Fall Business Update on October 15. Bitcoin and ether trading itself dates back to May, so what changed this week is the reach of the product and the direction of the money flow, with Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink now set to join before the end of 2026.
Schwab built the service in stages. After Wurster outlined a limited launch and the firm opened a waiting list, Schwab formally announced the phased rollout on April 16, and the first group of eligible retail clients gained access in May with only BTC and ETH on offer. On August 27 the company named three more assets it planned to add, and Joe Vietri, Schwab’s head of digital assets, presented the expansion as a way to give clients more choice in how they bring crypto into their portfolios.
Schwab Crypto rollout●April 16 – Phased rollout announced
●May – BTC and ETH trading goes live for first clients
●August 27 – SOL, AVAX and LINK announced
●October 15 – Full client access, inbound transfers begin
Source: Charles SchwabThe October update opened the service to the full client base, subject to its eligibility rules, and turned the vague “coming months” language around the three new tokens into a firm year-end target. Schwab has also said it could delay, change or withdraw support for an announced asset if market, regulatory or operational conditions shift.
Schwab Crypto runs as a separate account linked to an existing Schwab brokerage account, and clients trade through Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile or thinkorswim using market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders sized in either coins or dollars. Behind the interface, Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB acts as custodian responsible for safekeeping and recordkeeping, while Paxos Trust Company, N.A. handles sub-custody and trade execution, according to Schwab’s second-quarter regulatory filing.
How a Schwab Crypto account works Assets BTCETHSOL, AVAX, LINK by year-end Trading fee 0.75%per trade, no added spread Platforms Schwab.comSchwab Mobilethinkorswim Custodian Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB Execution Paxos Trust Company Wallet withdrawals Not supported initially FDIC / SIPC cover Not covered Source: Charles SchwabThat structure carries consequences a first-time buyer can easily overlook. Coins in a Schwab Crypto account fall outside FDIC deposit insurance and SIPC securities protection, and the initial offering does not allow withdrawals to external wallets, so an investor who wants to hold private keys personally still needs a separate exchange or wallet. The service remains unavailable to residents of New York and Louisiana, as well as in US territories and to international clients.
Inbound transfers let someone who already owns crypto at an exchange move it to the firm that holds the rest of their portfolio, and that shift competes directly for the custody relationships and trading fees that platforms such as Coinbase currently collect. Wurster still describes transfers as being rolled out, which means Schwab has not confirmed that every client can deposit coins yet, and outbound transfers have not been announced at all.
The pricing explains why the firm wants those balances. At 0.75% of transaction value with no advertised spread, every $1 billion in executed crypto trades would produce roughly $7.5 million in gross fees before costs. Schwab does not break out crypto revenue, so the roughly $1.2 billion in third-quarter trading revenue, up 16% from a year earlier, cannot be credited to digital assets, although Wurster placed crypto alongside prediction markets among the newer transaction revenue sources the firm is building.
Clients were already exposed before any of this launched, since Schwab stated in its April announcement that its clients held about 20% of spot crypto exchange-traded products, exposure that sat in brokerage accounts through ETFs long before direct trading existed.
Schwab ended September with 48.6 million client accounts, and its third-quarter report showed $190.4 billion in net new assets, 38% more than a year earlier, while daily average trades jumped 44% to 10.7 million. Net revenue rose 17% to $7.171 billion and GAAP net income climbed 23% to $2.906 billion.
Scale is the reason crypto markets pay attention to this rollout. A 0.5% allocation of Schwab’s client assets would equal about $67 billion, a figure that works only as an illustration because much of that base may be ineligible or unsuitable for crypto, and some purchases would simply relocate coins investors already hold elsewhere.
Fidelity Investments has offered retail crypto trading for years and runs its own spot bitcoin ETF, Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade already offers BTC, ETH and SOL through Zero Hash at a 0.50% fee, which undercuts Schwab’s pricing, and Interactive Brokers has widened direct trading, including an offering for eligible European clients. Dedicated exchanges keep real advantages in token selection, on-chain transfers and specialized trading tools, and with five assets planned by year-end, Schwab’s menu remains narrow by comparison.
The rollout’s next phase hinges on whether inbound transfers reach the full client base and whether Schwab eventually permits withdrawals, a step that would turn the account into something closer to a complete crypto wallet. The arrival of SOL, AVAX and LINK by the end of 2026 is the nearer milestone, but the larger one sits on the advisor platform, where Schwab has discussed bringing direct trading, transfers and custody to registered investment advisors, a target Schwab set for mid-2027 at a June media roundtable, covering a platform that held $5.2 trillion in advisor client assets at the end of the first quarter and would let advisors hold digital assets inside client relationships they already manage.
The custody setup may also change as balances grow. Schwab’s filing states that additional sub-custodians could be appointed beyond Paxos, which would reduce the service’s reliance on a single infrastructure provider, though the firm has not attached a timeline or named any candidates.
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