Charles Schwab has opened direct spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading to a first wave of its 39 million U.S. retail clients.
Schwab Crypto Goes Live For 39M Accounts
The brokerage confirmed on May 13 that an initial group of eligible investors can now buy and sell the two largest cryptocurrencies through a new platform called Schwab Crypto.
Schwab Premier Bank acts as custodian. Paxos, an OCC-regulated trust, handles trade execution and sub-custody.
Each trade carries a 75 basis-point fee, equal to 0.75% of the transaction value. Crypto assets sit in separate Schwab Crypto accounts linked to existing brokerage profiles, not inside standard portfolios. The service is live in every U.S. state except New York and Louisiana, where licensing rules still apply.
Joe Vietri, who leads digital assets at the firm, said Schwab wants to be a place where retail investors can add digital assets with confidence. The company plans to add more tokens later and eventually allow deposits and withdrawals of previously held coins.
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Wall Street Targets Coinbase And Robinhood
Schwab, which manages more than $12 trillion in client assets, now competes directly with Coinbase, Robinhood, and Fidelity for retail crypto flow.
The firm has said its clients already hold roughly 20% of all crypto exchange-traded products in the market. That base gives it an unusually wide funnel to convert ETF holders into direct buyers.
Analysts at CryptoTimes noted that Paxos secured OCC-regulated national trust status in December 2025, a credential that pure-play exchanges spent years pursuing. The Schwab pairing leans on that footing.
Schwab's fee also sits below Fidelity's 1% rate but above E*TRADE's 0.50%, per CryptoBriefing's comparison. The pricing slot puts pressure on rivals as the brokerage industry races to normalize digital assets.
Bitcoin Adoption Path At Schwab
Schwab first signaled the direct-trading push in 2025, then detailed the plan in an April 16 press release, ahead of months of internal testing.
Until this week, the firm's crypto exposure ran only through indirect products, spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, options on those funds, futures, and a handful of mutual funds. The rollout marks the company's first move into direct custody of customer coins, executed through a partner bank rather than an in-house wallet.
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