Schwab opens bitcoin and ether trading to all eligible clients

Charles Schwab has finished rolling out direct bitcoin and ether trading to its US retail customers, chief executive Rick Wurster said at the brokerage's Fall Business Update on October 15. "All clients can now access Schwab Crypto," he told investors — a milestone that puts spot crypto inside one of the largest retail brokerages in the United States, which reported 40.3 million active brokerage accounts at the end of September.

What changed

Schwab began offering spot crypto to a first group of customers in May 2026 after announcing the product in April. The phased launch is now over, but "all clients" comes with conditions:

• Customers need an eligible Schwab brokerage account and must apply for a separate Schwab Crypto account, which is offered by Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB. Not every applicant is approved.
• The service is not available to residents of New York and Louisiana, US territories or anyone outside the United States.
• Only bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) can be traded today, on Schwab.com, the Schwab Mobile app and thinkorswim.

Fees, custody and transfers

Schwab charges 0.75% of the trade value on each purchase or sale and says it adds no extra markup to the quoted price. The coins are held by Schwab's bank, which uses Paxos Trust Company as a sub-custodian; according to Schwab's FAQs, the holdings are not covered by FDIC insurance or SIPC protection.

The next step is transfers. Schwab is enabling deposits and withdrawals of BTC and ETH in phases and notifies clients by email when the feature is switched on. Withdrawal addresses have to be approved in advance, with a waiting period of at least 24 hours after a new address is added.

More coins by year-end

In August Schwab said it would add solana, avalanche and chainlink, and Wurster's update puts those additions on track for the end of 2026. Schwab's own product page still lists only bitcoin and ether as available.

For customers who already hold a spot ETF, the difference matters: with Schwab Crypto you own the coins through a custody account, while an ETF gives you fund shares. Our comparison of a bitcoin ETF vs buying bitcoin directly walks through the trade-offs, and how to store crypto safely explains what changes once you can withdraw to your own wallet. Big traditional finance names are moving at the same time — Germany's largest lender is weeks away from its own crypto custody launch.