Charles Schwab has formally launched spot cryptocurrency buying and selling for a choose group of retail purchasers, marking a major growth past its earlier crypto choices of ETFs and derivatives.
The agency introduced the rollout on X:
“Schwab Crypto™ accounts are actually being rolled out to retail purchasers. Beginning at this time, the primary group of purchasers can commerce Bitcoin and Ethereum at Schwab, proper alongside their different investments.”
How the platform works
Schwab purchasers will maintain a separate crypto account below Schwab Crypto, with Charles Schwab Premier Financial institution appearing as custodian and blockchain infrastructure supplier Paxos dealing with commerce execution and sub-custody.
The service fees a 75-basis-point charge per commerce.
It’s out there throughout all U.S. states besides New York and Louisiana, and never all purchasers will qualify.
Scale of the rollout
The launch comes as Schwab reported $11.77 trillion in shopper belongings and 39.1 million lively brokerage accounts on the finish of March 2026.
In Q1 2026, the corporate posted adjusted web revenue of $2.6 billion and earnings per share of $1.43, up 38% year-on-year, with income rising 16% to $6.48 billion.
Phased growth
The rollout follows an April announcement that Schwab would introduce the platform in phases.
With US Bitcoin ETFs already drawing huge institutional curiosity, Schwab’s transfer into direct spot buying and selling indicators that main brokerages are more and more competing for retail crypto quantity slightly than merely providing oblique publicity.