The Westlake-based financial services giant's new financial product is called "Schwab Crypto," and will allow users to trade bitcoin and ethereum — the world’s two most predominant cryptocurrencies, according to a release. In addition, it will offer “educational content and experienced professional support,” Schwab added. The company oversees more than $11 trillion in assets.
“We know our clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab,” Jonathan Craig, the company’s head of retail investing, said in a statement.
Another Schwab executive, Joe Vietri, the company’s head of digital assets, emphasized that the service will fit into an “all-in-one investing and banking experience” that will dovetail with the company’s existing suite of finance resources.
“Whether you’re new to crypto and looking for a firm you know and trust, or you already own digital assets, our goal is to be the destination of choice for retail investors who want to incorporate digital assets into portfolios with confidence,” Vietri said.
Schwab Crypto will fall under the designation of Charles Schwab Premier Bank, a subsidiary of the larger corporation. It will function as a separate account that links to Schwab clients’ brokerage accounts. The company is partnering with Paxos, a New York-based blockchain infrastructure company, for the trading service.
The spot trading platform will begin “a phased rollout” in the coming weeks, according to the release. Schwab also expects to eventually add more cryptocurrencies.
The new product rollout comes as major financial institutions more broadly have continued warming to the notoriously volatile asset class, which is popular among certain classes of small investors. Fidelity, after first launching a crypto business in 2018, now offers trading of bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and solana. In December, JP Morgan Chase — whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, previously suggested cryptocurrencies should be banned — also began exploring offering crypto trading for institutional clients, Bloomberg reported.
Yet after surging to record highs in 2025, bitcoin and other digital coins have tumbled this year, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading around $75,000 as of late Thursday, about 14% lower than on Jan. 1. That’s also meant bad news for the state of Texas, which invested $10 million of public money into bitcoin late last year as part of a broader crypto push.
Schwab’s news release about its new platform also came with a lengthy disclosure. “Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum are highly volatile,” it said in part, in a passage highlighted in bold, and “not backed or guaranteed by the bank [or] any central bank or government.”