Charles Schwab adds spot BTC, ETH

Charles Schwab has finally crossed the line from crypto-adjacent to actual crypto trading. The company started rolling out Schwab Crypto to retail clients on May 13, giving selected U.S. customers direct spot trading in bitcoin and ether inside the same ecosystem they already use for stocks, ETFs, banking, and thinkorswim. That matters because Schwab has spent years offering indirect crypto exposure — futures, funds, thematic ETFs — while stopping short of letting clients buy the coins themselves. Now that gap is closing. (coindesk.com) The basic news is simple. Schwab clients in the early rollout can now buy and sell BTC and ETH directly through Schwab Crypto, a product Schwab announced on April 16 and said would launch in phases over the following weeks. The service is being offered through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, and Schwab says clients can place trades across Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile, and thinkorswim. (pressroom.aboutschwab.com) Why is this a bigger deal than “broker adds crypto”? Because Schwab is not a niche exchange trying to look mainstream. It is already mainstream. In April, Schwab described itself as one of the biggest brokerages in the world, with more than $11 trillion in client assets, and the company’s pitch was basically that customers want their crypto to sit next to the rest of their portfolio instead of being stranded at a separate crypto-native app. That turns crypto from a side account into just another line item on a household balance sheet. (cnbc.com) What exactly is Schwab offering at launch? Not a giant token supermarket. Just bitcoin and ethereum. That is deliberate. Schwab says those two assets together make up roughly three-quarters of total crypto market capitalization, so the first version is focused on the two names most familiar to traditional investors. The company also says it plans to add more cryptocurrencies over time, plus deposit and withdrawal transfers later, which means today’s launch is still the stripped-down version. (pressroom.aboutschwab.com) What’s the catch on access? It is not universal yet. Schwab said from the start that the rollout would be phased, and its own launch materials say Schwab Crypto accounts are available in all U.S. states except New York and Louisiana, with no availability in U.S. territories or international jurisdictions. Not every client will qualify immediately either. So this is live, but not fully everywhere. (pressroom.aboutschwab.com) How is Schwab handling custody and execution? The interesting part is that Schwab did not build every moving piece itself. Reporting around the launch says Charles Schwab Premier Bank is the crypto custodian, while Paxos handles execution and sub-custody. Basically, Schwab owns the client relationship and front end, while specialized crypto infrastructure sits underneath. That is a pretty classic Wall Street move — keep the trusted wrapper, outsource the plumbing. (theblock.co) What about pricing? Schwab says trades are priced at 75 basis points of the dollar value of each trade. That is low enough to make the product feel competitive for a legacy brokerage, but not so low that Schwab is trying to win a fee war with the most aggressive crypto platforms. The real selling point is convenience and trust, not being the absolute cheapest venue on earth. (pressroom.aboutschwab.com) Why now? Because the regulatory mood changed, and traditional finance stopped acting like direct crypto access was radioactive. Schwab’s move lands in the middle of a broader shift where banks, brokers, and asset managers are getting more comfortable offering crypto products after years of hesitation. The result is that crypto is being absorbed into ordinary brokerage infrastructure instead of living in a separate financial universe. (cnbc.com) The bottom line is that Schwab did not just add another crypto product. It made spot bitcoin and ether available inside one of the most established retail investing platforms in the U.S. That does not guarantee a flood of new crypto buying tomorrow. But it does make owning crypto feel a lot less like a special trip — and a lot more like clicking “buy” in the same account where your index funds already live. (pressroom.aboutschwab.com)