Charles Schwab to Expand Crypto Offering for Clients. What to Know. -- Barrons.com

By Andrew Welsch

When Schwab started allowing customers to hold and trade cryptocurrencies directly in May, it limited their options to the two largest assets by market capitalization: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

But now the financial services giant says it will add other digital assets, including Solana, Avalanche, and Chainlink, to its nascent crypto offering in "coming months."

"With this expansion, clients will have more choices to build a digital asset allocation alongside the investing and banking experience they know and trust at Schwab," said Joe Vietri, head of digital assets at Schwab.

Shares of Schwab were down 1.3% Thursday morning. The Vanguard Financials ETF, which tracks a basket of financial stocks, was down 0.2%. The S&P 500 was up 0.5%.

Schwab customers have long been able to own funds that track cryptocurrencies, such as the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. The company has said its clients hold approximately 20% of spot crypto exchange-traded products. But Schwab says some customers want more options for trading and owning crypto, and that was behind the company's May announcement that it would give customers direct access.

The news comes amid a rebound in prices for some cryptocurrencies after a long downturn. Bitcoin recently climbed above $80,000 for the first time in three months, but is still down 28% over the past 12 months.

Schwab charges 0.75%, or 75 basis points, on the dollar value of each crypto trade.

Enabling customers to directly own crypto at Schwab may help it drum up more business from clients if they consolidate their assets at Schwab.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2026 12:06 ET (16:06 GMT)