Charles Schwab clients can now buy and sell Solana’s SOL, Avalanche’s AVAX and Chainlink’s LINK through Schwab Crypto, the brokerage said on Monday, taking the service from two assets to five. The additions arrive 74 days after Schwab first named the three tokens, and they put altcoins in front of a client base that held $13.33 trillion in assets at the end of September. XRP, which is worth more than LINK and AVAX combined, is still not on the list.
What Schwab Crypto now offers
The three tokens trade against the dollar as SOL/USD, AVAX/USD and LINK/USD, sitting alongside bitcoin and ether, Schwab said in its announcement. Pricing is unchanged at 75 basis points, or 0.75%, of the dollar value of each trade. On its Schwab Crypto page, the firm describes that as zero-spread pricing and lists market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders, placed either by coin amount or by dollar amount.
“We continue to expand Schwab Crypto to give clients greater choice and flexibility in how they invest in digital assets alongside their broader investments,” said Joe Vietri, Schwab’s head of digital assets. The release repeats that Schwab plans to add more cryptocurrencies and digital assets over time, without naming any.
The accounts are offered by Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, with the affiliated broker-dealer handling some operations. The release’s disclosures say the coins are not FDIC insured and not SIPC protected, and that Schwab “may delay, modify, or withdraw support for any announced asset based on market, regulatory, operational, or risk-related developments.”
A slow rollout by design
Schwab has moved in steps. It began giving a first group of retail clients spot bitcoin and ether trading in May, as we reported at the time, and opened Schwab Crypto to all eligible retail clients in October. The three new tokens were first announced on Aug. 27, when Schwab said they would arrive “in the coming months” and gave no date.
The geographic limits have not moved either. The August release said Schwab Crypto accounts are available in every U.S. state except New York and Louisiana, and not in U.S. territories or outside the country.
The reason a niche product at Schwab draws attention is the size of the funnel. The company reported 40.3 million active brokerage accounts and $13.33 trillion in client assets as of Sept. 30 in its quarterly filing. A client needs a Schwab brokerage account to open Schwab Crypto, and the coins show up in the same view as stocks and funds on Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile and thinkorswim.
What the wait looked like in prices
The 74 days between announcement and launch were not kind to two of the three tokens. Based on Coinbase daily closing prices for Aug. 27 and prices around 10:00 UTC on Tuesday, SOL has fallen about 22%, from $109.18 to roughly $85, and LINK about 12%, from $11.93 to about $10.49. Bitcoin dropped around 7% over the same stretch and ether about 16%.
AVAX is the exception, up about 11% to roughly $8.36. Much of that came on Monday, when AVAX rose about 9% on Coinbase. That was also the day Ava Labs said Avalanche technology would supply the core clearing and settlement ledger for the New York Stock Exchange’s planned tokenized securities venue, a story we covered on Monday, so the Schwab listing was not the only news in play.
None of this says much about future demand from Schwab clients. Schwab’s releases have not said how many Schwab Crypto accounts exist or how much they trade, and the three listings landed during a broad market pullback.
The coins Schwab has not added
Schwab’s choices do not follow market cap. By CoinGecko’s ranking on Tuesday, XRP is the sixth-largest crypto asset at about $68.8 billion, and BNB is fourth at about $90.6 billion. LINK ranks 17th at about $8 billion and AVAX 26th at about $3.7 billion. Schwab’s own release says it picks “established cryptocurrencies that align with client demand,” and it has not said whether XRP, BNB or Dogecoin are under review.
A Schwab education piece published alongside the launch, a guide to the five coins, frames AVAX around financial institutions and tokenization and LINK as an oracle network rather than a blockchain. That fits a pitch aimed at brokerage clients, built around tokens tied to market infrastructure rather than the largest names by size.
What to watch next is whether Schwab names the next batch with a date, whether the New York and Louisiana restrictions change, and whether the company starts reporting crypto account or trading figures in its monthly activity data.
FAQ
Which cryptocurrencies can Schwab clients trade?
Five: bitcoin, ether, Solana’s SOL, Avalanche’s AVAX and Chainlink’s LINK, all traded against the U.S. dollar through a Schwab Crypto account.
How much does Schwab charge for crypto trades?
Schwab charges 75 basis points, or 0.75%, of the dollar value of each trade, and says there is no added spread.
Can everyone in the U.S. use Schwab Crypto?
No. Schwab says accounts are not available in New York, Louisiana, U.S. territories or outside the U.S., and a Schwab brokerage account is required.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
