Charles Schwab, the largest discount brokerage in the U.S., is expanding into cryptocurrencies, starting with the two biggest. The company plans to offer its retail clients direct trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum through their existing brokerage accounts, charging a flat 0.75% transaction fee per trade. That rate undercuts the spread that Fidelity Investments applies to digital asset transactions on its Fidelity Crypto platform, where costs can climb to roughly 1% or more depending on trade size and market conditions.
The stage is set for a price war between the two biggest names in retail investing.
For a firm that ranks among the largest U.S. brokerages by total client assets and accounts, the move marks the most aggressive entry into spot cryptocurrency trading by a traditional platform to date. The fee details were first reported by Bloomberg, though Schwab has yet to reveal the exact pricing or launch timeframe.
Schwab CEO Rick Wurster tipped his hand to the firm’s direction years earlier. “We will get into spot crypto,” Wurster said, framing direct crypto trading as a natural response to client demand. The company had already made Bitcoin futures available and listed spot Bitcoin ETFs after the SEC approved those products in January 2024. But moving to spot trading is a different ballgame: clients would hold actual Bitcoin and Ethereum in their accounts rather than gaining exposure through derivatives or fund wrappers.
A 25-basis-point gap with outsized implications
The difference between Schwab’s reported 0.75% fee and Fidelity’s spread of roughly 1% may look modest in isolation. But Schwab built its dominance by proving that small fee advantages, applied at massive scale, reshape entire markets. Its campaign to eliminate equity trading commissions, which culminated in October 2019, forced every major brokerage to follow within weeks. The firm is now betting it can apply the same competitive logic to digital assets.
Fidelity has a meaningful head start. Its Fidelity Crypto unit launched in 2022, and the firm built its own custody subsidiary, Fidelity Digital Assets, which holds client crypto directly. That infrastructure gives Fidelity credibility with tech-savvy investors, particularly after the collapse of FTX in November 2022 made counterparty risk a front-page concern. Fidelity also supports a broader menu of cryptocurrencies than the two Schwab has reportedly chosen to launch, and it already allows crypto holdings inside IRAs.
But Schwab’s sheer retail footprint creates a different kind of advantage. If millions of mainstream investors discover they can buy Bitcoin inside the same account where they hold index funds and Treasury bonds, and pay less than a percent to do it, the convenience factor alone could shift significant volume.
Pressure on crypto-native platforms
The competitive threat extends well beyond Fidelity. Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto-native exchange, charges variable spreads on its simple-trade interface that can exceed 1.5% on smaller orders. Its Advanced Trade platform offers lower tiers for active traders. Robinhood buries its crypto costs in wider bid-ask spreads rather than listing a transparent percentage, making direct comparisons harder but not necessarily more favorable.
For these platforms, the risk isn’t just fee compression. It’s account consolidation. Investors who already use Schwab for stocks, bonds, and retirement savings would see Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside their other holdings on a single dashboard. That kind of integration has historically been a powerful driver of asset consolidation: when one firm offers a cheaper, simpler experience across more asset classes, investors and traders tend to move balances rather than maintain accounts at multiple institutions.
Crypto-native exchanges still hold advantages in areas like token breadth, trading features, and community. But for the large segment of retail investors whose crypto exposure begins and ends with Bitcoin and Ethereum, a Schwab brokerage account may soon be the path of least resistance.
What Schwab has not yet disclosed
Several key details remain unclear at last check. Schwab has yet to publish an exact launch date, and reporting from Bloomberg stops short of pinning rollout to a specific quarter. Perhaps more consequentially, the firm has also not disclosed its custody arrangements: whether it will hold client crypto assets directly, partner with a third-party custodian, or offer both options. The choice carries real consequences for insurance coverage, regulatory obligations, and investor confidence. Fidelity’s decision to custody through its own subsidiary set a benchmark that Schwab will be measured against.
The scope of supported assets is another mystery. Bitcoin and Ethereum are a given, but Schwab has not said publicly whether additional tokens will follow. Given that competitors already support dozens of coins, the breadth of Schwab’s crypto lineup could determine how effectively it captures market share beyond buy-and-hold Bitcoin investors.
Tax reporting deserves attention, too. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as property, subjecting every sale or exchange to capital gains rules. Brokerages are under increasing pressure to provide automated cost-basis tracking and 1099 forms for digital asset transactions, and the IRS has tightened reporting requirements for brokers in this space. The ease in which Schwab integrates crypto tax reporting into its existing tools will matter to tax-aware investors the firm already serves.
The regulatory backdrop working in Schwab’s favor
Schwab’s timing is not coincidental. The regulatory climate for crypto in the U.S. has shifted considerably since 2024. The SEC under the current administration has taken a less adversarial posture toward digital assets than it did under former Chair Gary Gensler. As a result, bipartisan legislation aimed at establishing a clearer federal framework for crypto markets has advanced in Congress. That evolving landscape has given traditional financial institutions greater clarity to build crypto products without the fear of enforcement actions that characterized the prior era.
Schwab’s size also gives it regulatory leverage that smaller firms lack. As a publicly traded entity with an established compliance infrastructure and existing relationships with FINRA and the SEC, Schwab can navigate the licensing and disclosure requirements for offering spot crypto more efficiently than a startup building from scratch.
What this means for the brokerage fee war
Schwab’s reported 0.75% rate is not a done deal, and the outcome could look different once the firm goes public with it. But the direction is unmistakable: the company that broke the equity commission model is treating Bitcoin and Ethereum as standard portfolio assets, not exotic alternatives, and pricing them to compete.
Fidelity’s response will be telling. It could cut its own spread, expand token support further, or double down on custody and security as differentiators. Coinbase and Robinhood face a different calculus: defending their crypto-native user bases against a firm that can offer stocks, bonds, options, and now crypto under one roof for less.
For retail investors weighing where to consolidate their financial lives, the stakes just got higher. And for every competitor in the space, the pressure to match or beat Schwab’s pricing started building the moment the plan became known.
