Brokerage and banking firm Charles Schwab officially began rolling out its crypto trading platform to retail clients in the US, joining the list of traditional financial institutions expanding their digital asset offering.
Schwab Launches Spot Trading For BTC, ETH
On Tuesday, the $11.7 trillion brokerage giant Charles Schwab revealed that it officially launched its spot digital asset trading platform, Schwab Crypto, to a select group of retail customers.
According to the X announcement, the first group of clients can trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) directly on its platform alongside their other digital asset-related investment products.
The crypto trading platform is available in all US states, excluding New York and Louisiana, and will charge a 75-basis-point fee on the dollar value of each trade, which is among the lowest in the industry.
Last month, the firm revealed the platform would be introduced in phases, starting with an internal employee pilot, moving to a client waitlist, and then opening to eligible customers throughout the rest of 2026.
As reported by Bitcoinist, the company explained that Schwab clients will maintain separate accounts under the new platform, which will be linked directly to their brokerage accounts.
Notably, Charles Schwab Premier Bank (CSPB) will serve as the custodian for customers’ assets, handling safekeeping and record-keeping. Meanwhile, blockchain infrastructure provider Paxos will handle trade execution and sub-custody, using a federally overseen trust model and enterprise-grade technology
The brokerage giant also revealed plans to add additional digital assets to the platform and introduce transfer capabilities for both deposits and withdrawals, allowing clients with existing digital asset investments to bring them to Schwab alongside their other accounts.
Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing at Charles Schwab, previously noted that with Schwab Crypto, the firm seeks to allow clients who want direct access to the asset class to benefit from the service, educational resources, and research tools they expect from the company.
Traditional Institutions Expand Crypto Offerings
This move marks a major expansion from Schwab’s previous digital asset-related offerings, which included indirect exposure to investments through spot crypto Exchange-traded products (ETPs), futures, options on spot crypto ETPs, crypto-related ETFs, and mutual funds that invest in the broader digital asset ecosystem. Schwab clients hold approximately 20% of spot crypto ETPs, the firm noted.
Moreover, the launch comes as major banks and brokerages race to add digital‐asset products and integrate crypto into mainstream investing, with several firms expanding retail digital asset offerings in recent years.
Last week, Wall Street behemoth Morgan Stanley also launched a crypto trading pilot on its E*Trade platform to a limited number of users, seeking to challenge major players, including Schwab, with competitive pricing.
The banking giant is charging E*Trade users a 50-basis-point fee on the transaction value, placing its prices below Robinhood’s 95 basis points, Coinbase’s 60 basis points, and Schwab’s 75 basis points.
While the pilot is currently available only to a limited group, Morgan Stanley expects to expand access to all of E*Trade’s 8.6 million clients later this year. The bank’s executives are reportedly preparing an offering to directly convert digital assets into shares of ETPs without selling the assets, and planning to add the ability to trade tokenized equities in the second half of 2026.
Jed Finn, Morgan Stanley’s head of wealth management, affirmed that the launch is “much bigger than trading crypto at a cheaper rate,” explaining that their strategy is “disintermediating the disintermediators.”
The total crypto market capitalization is at $2.63 trillion in the one-week chart. Source: TOTAL on TradingView
