CHARLES SCHWAB LAUNCHES SPOT BITCOIN AND ETHER TRADING FOR RETAIL CLIENTS WITH $12 TRILLION IN ASSETS Charles Schwab began a phased rollout of direct spot cryptocurrency trading on May 12, giving an initial group of retail clients access to buy and sell bitcoin and ether on its Schwab Crypto platform for the first time. Schwab oversees approximately $12 trillion in client assets across nearly 39 million active brokerage accounts, making it one of the largest entry points into retail crypto trading by any traditional financial institution. The launch follows a waitlist phase that opened in April and confirms the company’s previously stated Q2 2026 timeline. The Schwab Crypto account operates as a separate account linked to an existing Schwab brokerage account and is issued through Charles Schwab Premier Bank. Paxos handles trade execution and sub-custody. The platform charges 75 basis points per trade, lower than Fidelity Crypto’s 1% fee but higher than most crypto-native exchanges. Crypto deposits and withdrawals from external wallets are disabled at launch, meaning clients must purchase bitcoin and ether through the Schwab interface and cannot transfer existing holdings from Coinbase or other platforms. The service is available in all U.S. states except New York and Louisiana and will not be offered in U.S. territories or international jurisdictions. Not all clients will qualify automatically. Head of Retail Investing Jonathan Craig said “clients who want direct access to the asset class can trade it alongside their other investments.” The rollout places Schwab in direct competition with Robinhood and Coinbase for retail crypto volume, and alongside Morgan Stanley’s planned E*TRADE crypto launch via a Zerohash partnership. Schwab reported record Q1 earnings of $1.43 per share on $6.48 billion in revenue. The firm noted that its clients hold more than 20% of all crypto exchange-traded products industry-wide, suggesting embedded demand from an existing investor base already comfortable with digital asset exposure.