Charles Schwab clients can now buy and sell solana (SOL), avalanche (AVAX) and chainlink (LINK) in their Schwab Crypto accounts, the company said on Monday 9 November in a release dated from Westlake, Texas. The three tokens join bitcoin and ether, so Schwab Crypto now lists five assets. Each trade costs 75 basis points (0.75%) of its dollar value, the same rate Schwab has charged on bitcoin and ether since early access to the service began in May.
The launch was not a surprise. Schwab announced the three coins on 27 August, and its chief executive promised them before the end of the year in October. What is new is that the coins are tradable today by eligible retail clients in every US state except New York and Louisiana, through an account run by Schwab’s bank rather than its brokerage. That set-up decides what clients get and what they do not: no FDIC insurance on the coins, no SIPC protection and, in the release at least, no word on staking.
The broker is one of the largest in US retail investing. The Block put it at 39 million active brokerage accounts and more than $12 trillion in client assets when the coins were first announced in August. Schwab gave no number of crypto clients and no trading volumes.
What Schwab crypto clients can trade now, and at what fee
The pairs are SOL/USD, AVAX/USD and LINK/USD. Prices are in dollars only, and purchases are funded from cash in the linked Schwab brokerage account. Schwab says it plans to add more digital assets over time, without naming any.
The fee is a flat 0.75% of the trade’s value, a price Schwab calls “among the lowest in the industry” without naming any rival. Bitcoin.com, citing Schwab’s crypto pricing page, adds a one-cent minimum and gives the example of a $1,000 trade, which costs $7.50. A $10,000 purchase of solana would therefore cost $75 in fees, and selling it later costs 0.75% again on the sale value.
Clients see the coins on Schwab.com, the Schwab Mobile app and thinkorswim, Schwab’s trading platform, next to their stocks and funds. According to Bitcoin.com’s account of the launch, orders can be entered in dollars or in coin quantity, and Schwab.com and the mobile app accept market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders. Support runs around the clock by phone or chat, the release says.
Joe Vietri, Schwab’s head of digital assets, said in the release: “We continue to expand Schwab Crypto to give clients greater choice and flexibility in how they invest”. The release describes the three tokens as “established cryptocurrencies that align with client demand”, without saying how they were picked.
A bank account, not a brokerage account: what that means for the coins
These are not brokerage accounts. The release says the crypto products and the accounts are offered by Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, a Schwab bank that is a member of the FDIC, with Charles Schwab & Co., the broker-dealer, performing some operations on the bank’s behalf. A client opens a separate crypto account linked to the existing brokerage account, and the application has to be approved, according to Bitcoin.com.
The deposit insurance stops at cash. Schwab’s disclosure says the coins are not deposits, are not FDIC insured, are not SIPC protected, are not backed or guaranteed by the bank, any central bank or any government, and carry a risk of total loss. Schwab also keeps the right to delay, modify or withdraw support for any asset it has announced. A client who moves to a state or country Schwab does not serve can see the account restricted or closed.
Who actually holds the tokens is clearer in press reports than in the release. Bitcoin.com reports that Schwab’s bank is the custodian and that Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure company, provides sub-custody, holding the coins on the bank’s behalf, and executes the trades. Schwab’s 9 November release does not name Paxos.
Two features crypto users often look for are missing from the release. It does not mention staking, so a client holding solana or avalanche through Schwab should not expect the network rewards that a self-custody wallet or some exchanges pay; our guide to staking and its risks explains what that means. It does not mention transfers either. Bitcoin.com says transfers of supported coins are reaching enrolled clients gradually, and Crypto Briefing reported in October that Schwab was building a way to bring outside holdings in. Whether SOL, AVAX and LINK can leave a Schwab account for a private wallet today was not stated.
From first rollout to five coins in seven months
Schwab moved slowly and in public. A phased rollout of direct bitcoin and ether trading began in April, early access for a first group of clients followed in May, and the service opened to all eligible retail clients in October. The three new coins came about ten weeks after they were announced.
| Date (2026) | Step | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April | Phased rollout of direct bitcoin and ether trading begins | Crypto Briefing |
| May | Early access: first clients trade BTC and ETH at 0.75% per trade | Schwab release, The Block |
| 27 August | SOL, AVAX and LINK announced for “the coming months” | The Block |
| Mid-October | Third-quarter earnings call: all eligible clients can trade BTC and ETH; three new coins promised by year-end | Schwab release, Crypto Briefing |
| 9 November | SOL, AVAX and LINK tradable; five assets in total | Schwab release |
In August, Schwab said it planned to “thoughtfully expand” its digital asset offer, according to The Block, and Vietri said then: “With this expansion, clients will have more choices to build a digital asset allocation.” On the third-quarter earnings call in mid-October, chief executive Rick Wurster said Schwab was “launching access to three new coins by the end of the year”, as quoted by Crypto Briefing. The same call set out plans to widen prediction markets over 12 to 18 months, excluding sports, and Wurster presented crypto and prediction markets as new sources of transaction revenue.
No date was set in August. Schwab met the year-end promise with about seven weeks to spare.
Why Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, and not XRP or BNB
Beyond “client demand”, Schwab has not published its criteria. The list leaves out other large tokens such as XRP and BNB, and the release does not say whether they are under review. In August, Vietri told The Block the additions were “consistent with our approach to provide clients with access to familiar cryptocurrencies”.
The three picks have little in common beyond their size and their long trading history in the US. Solana is a fast layer-1 blockchain whose SOL token pays fees and secures the network through staking. Avalanche is another layer-1, built around subnets that let projects run their own chains, with AVAX as its token. Chainlink is different: it is not a general-purpose blockchain but an oracle network that brings outside data such as prices onto blockchains, and LINK pays its node operators. Our page on Chainlink, the oracle network and its bank pilots covers why banks have tested it.
No price reaction on launch day
Monday’s launch came in a falling market. Around 17:27 UTC, SOL traded near $86.40, down about 3% in 24 hours and 6.8% over seven days, while bitcoin was near $74,700 and the total crypto market value had lost 3.1% in a day, according to Coindaro’s market snapshot.
AVAX was the exception. It traded at about $8.65 on Coinbase at 17:36 UTC, roughly 6% above its $8.15 level 24 hours earlier, on a day when Avalanche had separate news of its own; nothing ties the move to Schwab. LINK was flat on Coinbase over the same 24 hours, at about $10.64 at 17:36 UTC.
E*Trade charges less, Fidelity more: brokers compete on crypto fees
Schwab’s 0.75% is not the lowest price among the big US brokers. Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade offers bitcoin, ether and solana for a 0.50% commission on the trade value, with no spread added on top, according to a July report by The Cryptonomist; its execution and custody partner is zerohash; transfers into those accounts were not yet live at the time, the outlet said.
Fidelity sits at the other end. Its Fidelity Crypto help page says the trading fee “won’t exceed 1% of the market value” of an executed order, and gives the example of a $2,500 bitcoin purchase charged $24.75. Fidelity’s crypto arm agreed in October to pay California $500,000 over blocked withdrawals, as covered in our report on the Fidelity settlement.
| Broker | Fee per trade | Coins (latest public figure) | Fee source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab | 0.75% of trade value | BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, LINK | Schwab release, 9 Nov 2026 |
| E*Trade (Morgan Stanley) | 0.50% commission, no added spread | BTC, ETH, SOL | The Cryptonomist, 18 Jul 2026 (reported) |
| Fidelity Crypto | Up to 1% of order value | Not stated on the fee page | Fidelity help page |
Coinbase and Robinhood still give access to a broader range of tokens than Schwab, as The Block noted in August.
For a Schwab client, the comparison is a trade-off between fees and convenience. A coin bought at Schwab sits next to the client’s stocks, funds and bank account, with one login and one support line. The same coin on E*Trade costs a third less in commission, as reported, and a crypto exchange usually offers more tokens and, often, staking and withdrawals to a private wallet.
The regulatory set-up behind a bank-run crypto account
Running crypto through the bank rather than the broker-dealer fits US rules as they stand. Broker-dealers that hold crypto for clients are still waiting for a dedicated SEC rule, which is under White House review, as reported in our piece on the filing at OIRA. A state-chartered bank, by contrast, can offer crypto custody and trading under banking supervision, and that is the route Schwab took.
Federal bank charters are drawing in crypto custody too. On Monday the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Coinbase final approval for a national trust bank, as covered in our report on the Coinbase charter.
Not open to European investors
The service is for US residents only. The release excludes US territories and all international jurisdictions, so readers in France, Italy or elsewhere in Europe cannot open an account. European investors buy the same tokens through platforms authorised under the EU’s MiCA regulation.
What Schwab has not said yet
- Whether clients can stake SOL or AVAX through Schwab, now or later. The release does not mention staking.
- Whether the new coins can be withdrawn to a private wallet, and when transfers will reach every client.
- How many clients use Schwab Crypto and how much they trade. No figures were given.
- Which assets come next. Schwab says only that it plans to add more over time.
- The role of Paxos for the new coins, which Schwab’s release does not mention.