Schwab Puts a Price on Retail Crypto: 75 Basis Points, 40 Million Accounts

Charles Schwab has turned on direct Bitcoin and Ether trading for about 40 million brokerage accounts at 0.75% per trade, with Paxos executing and handling sub-custody and Charles Schwab Premier Bank holding client assets and records ^[1][2][3]. The consequence is not that another incumbent has discovered crypto; it is that a firm overseeing more than $12 trillion in client assets has published a retail price and a custody stack that competitors now have to argue against ^[4].

The distribution number is the part worth sitting with. Cryptopolitan, citing Forbes, puts the live date at August 13 and the account count at roughly 40 million, up from the 39.1 million retail clients described in May, an increase of about 900,000 ^[1][5][6]. Spread across more than $12 trillion, that averages out to roughly $300,000 per account ^[7]. Schwab also says its clients already hold about 20% of all spot crypto exchange-traded products, which means the demand being converted here was already inside the building ^[8].

On price, the source material does not fully agree with itself. Cryptopolitan describes 75 basis points as "on par with the going rate in the market" in one passage and "among the lowest-cost options in the industry" in another ^[9][10]. Both cannot be the operative claim, and the difference matters to anyone modelling a response. The timeline is similarly unsettled: in April a Schwab spokesperson confirmed that plans to launch spot trading for the two largest tokens in the first half of 2026 were still on schedule, which sits awkwardly against an August go-live ^[11]. Treat the go-live as reported and the 2026 language as unexplained.

The product is available in 48 states, with New York and Louisiana excluded ^[12]. Paxos is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ^[3]. Jonathan Craig, Schwab's Head of Retail Investing, framed the launch around clients wanting to "conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab" ^[13], and Head of Digital Assets Joe Vietri described an ambition to be "the destination of choice for retail investors who want to incorporate digital assets into their portfolios with confidence" ^[14]. Committed next steps include assets beyond BTC and ETH and support for transferring tokens in from outside wallets and exchanges ^[15]. That transfer capability, whenever it ships, is the feature that turns a distribution advantage into balance migration.

Notably, Schwab's own research desk has not been recruited into the sales pitch. An April report found that even a 1% to 3% Bitcoin or Ether position can account for an outsized share of total portfolio risk, wrote that "any allocation to cryptocurrency is likely to increase a portfolio's volatility," noted both tokens have fallen more than 70% in past cycles, and concluded there is no "correct" allocation, calling crypto a speculative, high-risk satellite holding ^{[16][17][18][19]}.

The competitive backdrop: Morgan Stanley has opened crypto trading on E-Trade, and Goldman Sachs has filed for a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, per Cryptopolitan ^[20][21]. Congress is working toward the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which would split oversight between the SEC and the CFTC and set federal rules for tokens, stablecoins and DeFi ^[22].

What to watch: whether Schwab holds 0.75% once volumes arrive or uses it as an introductory number; when inbound token transfers actually go live, since that is the mechanism for pulling balances off exchanges; whether New York and Louisiana get added; and whether crypto-native venues respond on headline fees or on assets Schwab does not list. Also watch the unresolved H1 2026 language for a correction from either Schwab or the reporting.