Charles Schwab opens bitcoin and ether trading to all clients

Charles Schwab now lets all eligible clients buy and sell bitcoin and ether directly, the brokerage said on its October 15 earnings call. Schwab holds $13.33 trillion in client assets. That makes it one of the largest traditional brokers to offer spot crypto.

Chief Executive Rick Wurster told analysts that "all clients can now access Schwab Crypto." The service began a phased rollout in April and reached everyone this fall. Schwab first opened it to a waitlist, then to select clients over the summer, before the full switch. It runs the trading through its own bank, Charles Schwab Premier Bank, with Paxos handling custody and order execution in the background.

What clients can trade, and the cost

For now, clients can trade just two coins: bitcoin and ether. The menu is short. Schwab charges 0.75% of the dollar value of each trade, a rate it set out when it first announced the service in April. The offer covers the United States except New York and Louisiana. It does not reach US territories or clients abroad. Not every account qualifies, and Schwab reviews eligibility before it switches trading on.

Those coins sit with Charles Schwab Premier Bank, which keeps the records, while Paxos provides sub-custody and runs the trades. One point matters for safety. The crypto is not a bank deposit, and it carries no FDIC or SIPC protection. Anyone weighing this against a fund can read our guide to a bitcoin ETF versus buying bitcoin directly.

Schwab set out the terms when it unveiled the service in April. "We know our clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab," Jonathan Craig, the firm's head of retail investing, said at the time. The pitch is convenience: one login for stocks, funds and now two major coins.

Transfers and three more coins are coming

Buying is only the start. Until now clients had to buy bitcoin or ether inside Schwab Crypto and could not move in coins they already held elsewhere. That is changing. "We are rolling out the ability for clients to transfer their crypto holdings to Schwab," Wurster said on the call. He added that the firm is "launching access to three new coins by the end of the year."

Schwab did not name the three coins on the call. Reporting from Crypto Briefing and other outlets points to Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, assets the firm flagged as planned listings back in August. A firm launch date is not set. Schwab has also not said when transfers will reach every client.

Why a broker this size matters

Scale is the story here. Schwab reported record quarterly revenue of $7.2 billion for the three months to September, up 17% from a year earlier. Clients opened about 1.2 million new brokerage accounts in the quarter, and core net new assets reached $190.4 billion, up 38% on the same period in 2025. Put a crypto button in front of that base and even light use adds up.

Wurster framed crypto as a way to earn more from client trading, alongside prediction markets. Schwab already offers S&P 500-linked binary options through Cboe and wants to widen that over the next 12 to 18 months to cover financial events, company results and politics. It has said it will stay out of sports betting. Schwab is not alone in the shift. Standard Chartered recently opened bitcoin trading to wealthy clients in the UAE, part of a wider move by banks and brokers into an asset they once kept at arm's length.

The catch for crypto-native users

Access is not the same as cheap. At 0.75% a trade, Schwab costs more than many dedicated crypto exchanges, where standard trading fees usually run lower. A quarter point here, a quarter point there. Over a year of active trading it adds up. The coin list is thin next to an exchange that lists hundreds, and transfers are not live for everyone. Buyers also give up self-custody, the chance to hold their own keys, in return for the comfort of a familiar name.

What to watch

A few things will show whether this sticks. Watch when transfers open to all clients, since that lets people move existing holdings in rather than rebuy. Watch which three coins list, and when. Watch whether the 0.75% fee holds once rivals undercut it. And watch the push into prediction markets, a line Schwab now mentions in the same breath as crypto.