According to reports from Schwab, the brokerage has launched direct Bitcoin and Ether trading at a 0.75% transaction fee, bringing cryptocurrency access to its $13.1 trillion brokerage platform. The phased rollout that started May 13 has progressed as planned, with the service initially supporting Bitcoin and Ether through Charles Schwab Premier Bank holding client assets and Paxos providing trade execution and sub-custody. The service launched without crypto deposits or withdrawals, while clients in New York and Louisiana were excluded from the initial rollout.
As reported by Schwab, the company achieved record second-quarter revenue of $7.1 billion, up 21% from a year earlier, while daily average trades climbed 57% to 11.9 million. Core net new assets reached about $120 billion during the quarter, and clients opened another 1.4 million brokerage accounts. Total client assets stood at $13.08 trillion as of June 30, up 22% year over year, while active brokerage accounts reached 39.8 million.
According to reports, Schwab charges 75 basis points per trade, positioning itself between Fidelity's roughly 1% spread and Morgan Stanley's ETrade's** flat 50 basis point charge. Morgan Stanley launched its ETrade pilot on May 6 with Bitcoin, Ether and Solana trading through Zerohash, planning to make the service available to all 8.6 million ETrade clients later in 2026. Coinbase generated about $452 million in consumer transaction revenue on $25.8 billion of consumer trading volume during the second quarter, equivalent to an implied take rate of roughly 1.75%.
As reported by Schwab, the company is exploring stablecoins and plans to extend crypto trading, transfers and custody to its advisor platform with a mid-2027 target. The company has begun a crypto transfers pilot and taken an equity stake in infrastructure provider Paxos. CEO Rick Wurster previously said clients held about $25 billion in crypto exchange-traded products through Schwab and were asking to consolidate digital assets with their stocks, bonds and cash instead of maintaining accounts on separate platforms.
