Charles Schwab is rolling out direct Bitcoin trading to its 38.9 million brokerage accounts.
That's the largest retail brokerage in the United States putting a buy button for bitcoin in front of the same people who hold their retirement accounts there. The platform manages $12.22 trillion in client assets.
The product, Schwab Crypto, launched through a phased rollout starting with employees, then a waitlist, and is now broadening access through the first half of 2026. The feature set is basic: buy and sell only. No self-custody withdrawals, no recurring purchases, no limit orders. Bitcoin sits in Schwab's bank subsidiary, not in a wallet you control.
Schwab's own research recently updated its recommended Bitcoin allocation: 1% for cautious investors, 6.6% for moderate, 8.8% for aggressive. Numbers that would have been unthinkable from a major brokerage a year ago.
The competitive picture has shifted fast. Goldman filed a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF this week. Morgan Stanley launched MSBT. BlackRock's IBIT holds $93 billion. Now the largest retail brokerage in the country is putting spot bitcoin inside accounts that hold $12 trillion.
The custody limitation matters. Schwab isn't offering self-custody, and for Bitcoiners that's a fundamental distinction. But for the median Schwab client who's never touched a hardware wallet, having bitcoin in their existing brokerage is the difference between buying it and not.
The infrastructure for Bitcoin adoption is no longer being built by crypto companies. It's being built by the institutions that manage the bulk of American savings.
That's the largest retail brokerage in the United States putting a buy button for bitcoin in front of the same people who hold their retirement accounts there. The platform manages $12.22 trillion in client assets.
The product, Schwab Crypto, launched through a phased rollout starting with employees, then a waitlist, and is now broadening access through the first half of 2026. The feature set is basic: buy and sell only. No self-custody withdrawals, no recurring purchases, no limit orders. Bitcoin sits in Schwab's bank subsidiary, not in a wallet you control.
Schwab's own research recently updated its recommended Bitcoin allocation: 1% for cautious investors, 6.6% for moderate, 8.8% for aggressive. Numbers that would have been unthinkable from a major brokerage a year ago.
The competitive picture has shifted fast. Goldman filed a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF this week. Morgan Stanley launched MSBT. BlackRock's IBIT holds $93 billion. Now the largest retail brokerage in the country is putting spot bitcoin inside accounts that hold $12 trillion.
The custody limitation matters. Schwab isn't offering self-custody, and for Bitcoiners that's a fundamental distinction. But for the median Schwab client who's never touched a hardware wallet, having bitcoin in their existing brokerage is the difference between buying it and not.
The infrastructure for Bitcoin adoption is no longer being built by crypto companies. It's being built by the institutions that manage the bulk of American savings.
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