Key Notes
- Schwab now offers Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink trading alongside Bitcoin and Ether for eligible US clients.
- Each crypto purchase or sale carries a 0.75% fee with no added spread markup.
- External transfers for SOL, AVAX and LINK remain unavailable, while Bitcoin and Ether transfers are in beta.
Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) has opened trading in Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink through Schwab Crypto, broadening the digital assets available to eligible US retail clients beyond Bitcoin and Ether.
The three additions take its offering to five cryptocurrencies. Schwab’s product page now lists SOL, AVAX and LINK as available to buy, hold and sell, following the expansion it outlined in August.
For customers, the immediate change is a wider choice of directly held tokens within the Schwab platforms they already use. Sending the new assets to an external wallet remains a separate matter: Schwab has not yet enabled that feature for the three additions.
From Two Tokens to Five
Schwab began rolling out direct crypto trading in May, initially with Bitcoin and Ether. The company’s August 27 announcement identified Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink as the next assets to join the platform, with availability expected in the coming months.
Our October coverage of the retail rollout described a service still centered on Bitcoin and Ether. The latest listings put the next stage of that expansion into operation.
Schwab said in August that it selected the tokens to meet client demand and intended to add more digital assets over time. The current product page repeats that more are coming, without naming the next additions.
Trading Fees and Account Access
Clients trade through Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile or thinkorswim. Supported order types include market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders, entered either as a dollar amount or a quantity of cryptocurrency.
Schwab’s trading terms set a fee of 0.75% for each purchase or sale, with a one-cent minimum and no added spread markup. A $1,000 purchase therefore costs $7.50 in transaction fees; selling the same notional amount would incur another $7.50.
The crypto account is held at Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, and linked to an eligible brokerage account. Customers move available cash from the linked account to fund their crypto purchases. Applications require approval, and residents of New York, Louisiana, US territories and international jurisdictions remain excluded.
Wallet Transfers Remain Limited
The company’s asset specifications list a $1 million maximum order for each of SOL, AVAX and LINK and a $10 million position limit. Schwab calculates the position limit using invested cost rather than the holding’s changing market value.
External deposits and withdrawals are marked unavailable for all three. Bitcoin and Ether transfers are listed as beta features, with access being rolled out to eligible accounts in phases.
That leaves the new tokens available for investment and trading inside Schwab, while customers await the ability to move them to other wallets. Crypto accounts do not support margin, and the cryptocurrency holdings are neither FDIC insured nor SIPC protected.
A Wider Crypto Business for SCHW
The expansion draws on an established distribution network. Schwab’s October 15 quarterly results showed $13.33 trillion in total client assets and $190.4 billion in third-quarter core net new assets. Those figures cover the wider firm, rather than its crypto business.
For SCHW shareholders, additional tokens give clients more reasons to conduct their crypto activity within Schwab. The fee model turns that activity into revenue each time a client buys or sells, extending the brokerage group’s digital-asset business beyond its original two-coin offering.
