Charles Schwab enters the crypto space with fees lower than its biggest rival – and a customer base that dwarfs most financial platforms in America.
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A slow roll, not a full launch
The Texas-based brokerage has started offering spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum through it Schwab Crypto platform, managed through Charles Schwab Premier Bank.
But don’t expect every customer to get access right away. The rollout will begin with an internal pilot for employees, move to a customer waitlist, and then open more broadly through the remainder of the second quarter of 2026. Customers in New York and Louisiana are currently excluded.
When the door opens fully, the potential range is enormous. Schwab manages nearly $1.50 trillion in assets and maintains accounts for up to 46 million active brokerage clients, served by 16,000 financial advisors. That kind of scale now puts Schwab in a league of its own among brokers entering the crypto market.
The company set its trading fees at 0.75%, which undercut Fidelity Crypto’s 1% rate. Whether that gap is big enough to draw customers away from established platforms remains to be seen, but it gives Schwab a concrete price advantage.
Robinhood still has some ground
Schwab doesn’t have the field to himself. Robinhood, which has been in the crypto trading space for years, offers more than 15 cryptocurrencies, operates in the EU and Asia Pacific markets, and allows users to transfer crypto to third-party wallets. Schwab will start with only Bitcoin and Ethereum for the time being.
Reports indicate that Schwab plans to add more cryptocurrencies in the future, along with AI tools, as it looks to capture a larger share of demand from investors who want crypto alongside their traditional holdings. The brokerage described the crypto push as part of a broader effort to increase revenue streams.
Profit figures further overshadow a strong quarter
The crypto announcement came on the same day Schwab published its first quarter 2026 results. Net sales rose 16% year over year to $6.48 billion – a record – but fell just short of the $6.50 billion analysts expected. That narrow miss hit the stock hard. Schwab (NYSE: SCHW ) shares were down 7.70% on the day, trading at $92.51.
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Bitcoin reached $75,000 on the same day, pushed higher by strong inflows into spot ETFs and optimism around a possible ceasefire between the US and Iran.
Ethereum moved in the opposite direction, falling 0.75% to $2,355 after a large holder sold around 120,000 ETH (worth almost $60 million) and made a profit on a long position.
Schwab’s entry adds another important name to the growing list of traditional financial institutions now offering direct access to crypto assets, further bringing Bitcoin and Ethereum into the mainstream of everyday investing.
Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView