Brokerage providers large Charles Schwab plans to roll out spot cryptocurrency buying and selling within the first half of 2026, pushing it deeper into digital property.
“We stay on observe to launch our spot crypto provide within the first half of 2026, beginning with bitcoin and ether (ETH),” an organization spokesperson advised CoinDesk on Friday.
The agency has opened a waitlist for shoppers in search of early entry to what it calls a “Schwab Crypto” account, which is able to permit customers to purchase and promote the 2 largest cryptocurrencies. The agency will provide the service by way of Charles Schwab Premier Financial institution, SSB.
The transfer builds on feedback from CEO Rick Wurster, who mentioned final July that Schwab aimed to introduce crypto buying and selling “sometime soon” in response to shopper demand. He framed the trouble as a option to deliver digital property into the identical account view as shares and bonds in a push towards a extra unified funding platform.
Schwab’s scale might give it an edge because it enters a market lengthy dominated by crypto-native exchanges. The agency reported $11.9 trillion in shopper property in 2025, providing a built-in base of retail and institutional buyers who might want buying and selling crypto inside a well-known brokerage atmosphere slightly than utilizing standalone platforms.
The agency already permits shoppers to put money into ETFs linked to cryptocurrencies and commerce bitcoin futures on its platform. It additionally launched the Schwab Crypto Thematic Index (STCE), an ETF that tracks the efficiency of corporations linked to the digital asset sector.
