Overview
- Charles Schwab has begun rolling out Schwab Crypto to let clients trade spot bitcoin and ether with a 0.75% fee per executed trade.
- Access will open in stages starting with an employee pilot and a client waitlist before wider Q2 availability, with New York and Louisiana excluded at launch.
- Crypto accounts are issued by Charles Schwab Premier Bank and kept separate from brokerage holdings, and Paxos handles sub‑custody and trade execution as a federally overseen provider.
- Trading is integrated into Schwab.com, the Schwab mobile apps, and thinkorswim, and the company plans to add more coins and deposit-and-withdrawal transfers in later updates.
- Schwab’s pricing undercuts Fidelity’s 1% crypto fee and, given Schwab’s large client base, could pull retail trading from rivals once access broadens.