Schwab bereitet sich darauf vor, Kunden den Handel mit Bitcoin zu ermöglichen. Ein Vergleich der Gebühren mit denen von Robinhood und Fidelity. — Barrons.com

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By Andrew Welsch

Investors will soon be able to directly trade and hold cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum at Charles Schwab. The brokerage firm had already announced it would provide such a spot trading capability, but on Thursday it unveiled details of the launch.

The brokerage firm said it would roll out Schwab Crypto, as the offering is called, gradually in coming weeks. It will allow clients to view and trade cryptocurrency and traditional investments side-by-side across Schwab's trading platforms, including thinkorswim.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two largest cryptocurrencies, and Schwab says they together make up three-quarters of the crypto market capitalization. Over time, Schwab intends to add other cryptocurrencies to its offering.

The company says it will charge 0.75%, or 75 basis points, on the dollar value of each crypto trade. The company won't charge clients to hold crypto at Schwab.

Customers will maintain a separate crypto account through Schwab Crypto, and Charles Schwab Premier Bank will serve as the custodian of clients' digital assets. Paxos, a regulated blockchain infrastructure provider, will deliver subcustody and trade execution services, according to Schwab.

The company has been able to expand into cryptocurrency because of regulatory changes under the Trump administration that have made it easier for banks to hold digital assets.

However, Schwab customers have long had access to cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds. Indeed, the company says clients hold approximately 20% of spot crypto exchanged-traded products. But customers have been asking for the ability to directly hold crypto, and do so via other companies, according to Schwab. The new crypto offering may spur customers to consolidate their crypto assets at Schwab.

"They've been begging us to launch this so they can move their crypto assets to us," CEO Rick Wurster said during his company's earnings call on Thursday morning.

He said customers want to hold crypto at Schwab because they trust the company with their other assets and they want to simplify their financial lives by consolidating assets and accounts at a single company.

Schwab reported first-quarter earnings that showed robust growth in asset-gathering and new account openings, but the stock sold off, with shares falling 7.5%.

Some other brokerage firms, such as Robinhood and Fidelity Investments, offer customers the ability to directly hold and trade crypto assets. Fidelity's retail crypto offering, Fidelity Crypto, launched in 2023. The company allows customers to trade a variety of cryptocurrencies and it changes a trading fee of 1%. Robinhood charges fees ranging from 0.03% to 0.85% depending on a client's trading volume.

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.
source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260416009125:0/