Charles
Schwab has switched on the first round-the-clock product in its history,
letting clients trade select cryptocurrency futures nearly 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, on its thinkorswim platforms.
The futures
cover bitcoin, ether, solana and ripple contracts, and they give clients price
exposure without holding the underlying tokens.
The more
consequential signal, however, came from a separate corner of the firm: Schwab
is preparing to bring spot crypto trading and custody to the financial advisors
who steer trillions of dollars through its platform.
The 24/7
futures access runs through Charles Schwab Futures and Forex, a registered
futures commission merchant, and extends a crypto push that is only a few
months old. Schwab opened direct crypto trading to retail clients this spring,
a phased rollout of spot bitcoin and
ether priced at 75
basis points and routed through Paxos.
Timing is
the part worth pausing on. Schwab, which reported $12.61 trillion in total
client assets and 10.3 million daily average trades in April, is widening
always-on access just as retail enthusiasm cools.
Bitcoin
fell about 6% the day the news broke and has
been grinding lower for months.
James Kostulias, Managing Director and Head of Trading Services at Charles Schwab
James
Kostulias, head of trading services, said the firm is “committed to adding
features and resources that expand our offering.”
The Real Prize Is the $5
Trillion Advisor Channel
Behind the
consumer-facing launch sits a bigger target. At a Schwab Advisor Services media roundtable in late May,
the firm said it aims to add spot crypto trading, transfers and custody for
registered investment advisors by the middle of 2027.
Jalina
Kerr, managing director and head of advisor experience, said the firm is
“on track for next year, probably more like the middle of the year,”
while cautioning that the date could move.
That
channel is where the money is. Schwab custodies more than $5 trillion for over
16,000 advisors, and those advisors currently send client crypto allocations
off-platform to specialist custodians. F
olding
digital assets into the same account view as stocks and bonds would pull a
large pool of advised money toward a single provider, assuming Schwab hits its
timeline.
Jalina Kerr, managing director and head of advisor experience
Kerr said
advisors have leaned on exchange-traded products for crypto exposure, with
demand for direct ownership rising among clients who already hold coins
elsewhere.
Wall Street’s Old Guard
Races the Crypto-Native Custodians
Schwab is
not moving in a vacuum. Traditional brokers spent years keeping crypto at arm’s
length, and they are now competing for the same accounts that pure-play firms
built their businesses on.
Morgan
Stanley is the closest comparison. The bank has been bringing crypto to its E*Trade
platform, with a
pilot covering bitcoin, ether and solana reported at 50 basis points, below
Schwab’s 75-point retail fee.
SoFi
resumed retail crypto trading last year, and Interactive Brokers has offered
crypto since 2021, when it launched trading through Paxos, the same execution partner Schwab
uses on the retail side.
The advisor
plan is where Schwab’s approach diverges. Rather than chase self-directed
retail traders, it is aiming at the custody layer underneath registered
investment advisors, territory held today by Coinbase Prime, BitGo and
Anchorage.
If Schwab
delivers integrated custody, transfers and reporting, advisors could
consolidate fragmented crypto holdings without leaving the platform they
already use for everything else.
That is a
direct challenge to the crypto-native custodians, and it is the reason the 2027
plan matters more than the futures headline.
|
Firm |
Crypto offering |
Scale |
Timing |
|
Schwab (retail) |
Spot BTC, |
39M retail accounts |
Launched spring 2026 |
|
Schwab (advisors) |
Spot trading, transfers, custody |
$5T+ in RIA custody |
Targeted mid-2027 |
|
Morgan Stanley |
E*Trade |
E*Trade base |
Pilot 2026 |
|
Interactive Brokers |
Crypto via Paxos |
US-listed broker |
Since 2021 |
Sources:
company disclosures, Schwab Advisor Services roundtable.
Fractional Shares and
Platform Tweaks Round Out the Week
The rest of
the update is incremental. Schwab expanded fractional trading to most US stocks
and ETFs with a $1 minimum, letting clients buy by dollar amount inside the
standard trade ticket rather than through a separate flow.
It also
added expected price range data for marginable securities on Schwab.com and
mobile dividend reinvestment controls, among other changes.
None of
that reshapes the competitive map on its own. The crypto futures switch and the
advisor custody timeline are the developments that put Schwab on the same field
as both Wall Street rivals and the digital-asset specialists.
Charles
Schwab has switched on the first round-the-clock product in its history,
letting clients trade select cryptocurrency futures nearly 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, on its thinkorswim platforms.
The futures
cover bitcoin, ether, solana and ripple contracts, and they give clients price
exposure without holding the underlying tokens.
The more
consequential signal, however, came from a separate corner of the firm: Schwab
is preparing to bring spot crypto trading and custody to the financial advisors
who steer trillions of dollars through its platform.
The 24/7
futures access runs through Charles Schwab Futures and Forex, a registered
futures commission merchant, and extends a crypto push that is only a few
months old. Schwab opened direct crypto trading to retail clients this spring,
a phased rollout of spot bitcoin and
ether priced at 75
basis points and routed through Paxos.
Timing is
the part worth pausing on. Schwab, which reported $12.61 trillion in total
client assets and 10.3 million daily average trades in April, is widening
always-on access just as retail enthusiasm cools.
Bitcoin
fell about 6% the day the news broke and has
been grinding lower for months.
James Kostulias, Managing Director and Head of Trading Services at Charles Schwab
James
Kostulias, head of trading services, said the firm is “committed to adding
features and resources that expand our offering.”
The Real Prize Is the $5
Trillion Advisor Channel
Behind the
consumer-facing launch sits a bigger target. At a Schwab Advisor Services media roundtable in late May,
the firm said it aims to add spot crypto trading, transfers and custody for
registered investment advisors by the middle of 2027.
Jalina
Kerr, managing director and head of advisor experience, said the firm is
“on track for next year, probably more like the middle of the year,”
while cautioning that the date could move.
That
channel is where the money is. Schwab custodies more than $5 trillion for over
16,000 advisors, and those advisors currently send client crypto allocations
off-platform to specialist custodians. F
olding
digital assets into the same account view as stocks and bonds would pull a
large pool of advised money toward a single provider, assuming Schwab hits its
timeline.
Jalina Kerr, managing director and head of advisor experience
Kerr said
advisors have leaned on exchange-traded products for crypto exposure, with
demand for direct ownership rising among clients who already hold coins
elsewhere.
Wall Street’s Old Guard
Races the Crypto-Native Custodians
Schwab is
not moving in a vacuum. Traditional brokers spent years keeping crypto at arm’s
length, and they are now competing for the same accounts that pure-play firms
built their businesses on.
Morgan
Stanley is the closest comparison. The bank has been bringing crypto to its E*Trade
platform, with a
pilot covering bitcoin, ether and solana reported at 50 basis points, below
Schwab’s 75-point retail fee.
SoFi
resumed retail crypto trading last year, and Interactive Brokers has offered
crypto since 2021, when it launched trading through Paxos, the same execution partner Schwab
uses on the retail side.
The advisor
plan is where Schwab’s approach diverges. Rather than chase self-directed
retail traders, it is aiming at the custody layer underneath registered
investment advisors, territory held today by Coinbase Prime, BitGo and
Anchorage.
If Schwab
delivers integrated custody, transfers and reporting, advisors could
consolidate fragmented crypto holdings without leaving the platform they
already use for everything else.
That is a
direct challenge to the crypto-native custodians, and it is the reason the 2027
plan matters more than the futures headline.
|
Firm |
Crypto offering |
Scale |
Timing |
|
Schwab (retail) |
Spot BTC, |
39M retail accounts |
Launched spring 2026 |
|
Schwab (advisors) |
Spot trading, transfers, custody |
$5T+ in RIA custody |
Targeted mid-2027 |
|
Morgan Stanley |
E*Trade |
E*Trade base |
Pilot 2026 |
|
Interactive Brokers |
Crypto via Paxos |
US-listed broker |
Since 2021 |
Sources:
company disclosures, Schwab Advisor Services roundtable.
Fractional Shares and
Platform Tweaks Round Out the Week
The rest of
the update is incremental. Schwab expanded fractional trading to most US stocks
and ETFs with a $1 minimum, letting clients buy by dollar amount inside the
standard trade ticket rather than through a separate flow.
It also
added expected price range data for marginable securities on Schwab.com and
mobile dividend reinvestment controls, among other changes.
None of
that reshapes the competitive map on its own. The crypto futures switch and the
advisor custody timeline are the developments that put Schwab on the same field
as both Wall Street rivals and the digital-asset specialists.
