Charles Schwab has switched on direct Bitcoin and Ether trading for retail clients at a 0.75% fee, bringing crypto into a brokerage that holds $13.1 trillion in client assets. The rollout undercuts Fidelity's rate but costs more than Morgan Stanley's E*Trade, and Schwab is already eyeing transfers, custody and its advisor platform next.
Charles Schwab has added direct Bitcoin and Ether trading to its retail brokerage platform, charging a 0.75% transaction fee on each trade. The move brings crypto into a business that reported $13.1 trillion in client assets and 39.8 million active brokerage accounts at the end of the second quarter.
The service launched in phases starting May 13, with Charles Schwab Premier Bank holding client assets while Paxos handles trade execution and sub-custody. Clients in New York and Louisiana were excluded from the initial rollout, and Schwab has taken an equity stake in Paxos while starting a crypto transfers pilot.
Bitcoin's momentum has cooled even as Schwab pushes ahead
Bitcoin was trading near $63,000 as the rollout continued, even as spot trading volumes declined across the industry during the quarter. Schwab's digital-currencies research and strategy director, Jim Ferraioli, said in June that Bitcoin had lost some of its momentum appeal as investors shifted toward AI stocks, commodities and anticipated IPOs.
Schwab has nevertheless kept the product on schedule. CEO Rick Wurster has described the launch as a response to customers who wanted to consolidate assets held elsewhere rather than a bet on a particular Bitcoin price cycle.
Schwab's crypto push tracks broader account growth
Schwab's retail base kept expanding through the quarter: revenue reached $7.1 billion, up 21% from a year earlier. Daily average trades climbed 57% to 11.9 million, and core net new assets rose about $120 billion, pushing total client assets to $13.08 trillion, up 22% year over year.
Schwab CEO Rick Wurster has said clients wanted crypto "alongside their stocks, bonds and cash, not off to the side on a different app." He has also attributed part of the trading increase to younger investors and greater use of AI-driven investing tools.
Traditional brokers compete with crypto exchanges on fees
Schwab's 75-basis-point fee undercuts Fidelity's roughly 1% spread but costs more than Morgan Stanley's E*Trade, which charges a flat 50 basis points through its own spot trading pilot, launched in May with Bitcoin, Ether and Solana via Zerohash. Morgan Stanley plans to extend the service to its 8.6 million E*Trade clients later in 2026.
Coinbase, meanwhile, generated about $452 million in consumer transaction revenue on $25.8 billion of trading volume during the quarter, an implied take rate of roughly 1.75%. Coinbase still reported a $359.5 million net loss as consumer transaction revenue fell about 30% from a year earlier.
Schwab has discussed adding a stablecoin through talks with bank consortia, though it has not announced a launch, and has set a mid-2027 target to extend spot crypto trading, transfers and custody to its advisor platform.
Source: crypto.news
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