In short
- Charles Schwab is expected to launch spot buying of Bitcoin and Ethereum this quarter.
- The company will start with a limited rollout before an expanded release, CEO Rick Wurster said recently.
- Last year, the financial giant also indicated that it was interested in working with stablecoins.
Financial services firm Charles Schwab won’t keep its members waiting much longer to buy locally Bitcoin And Ethereum and keep crypto on its platform.
A newly launched one cryptocurrency page under the company’s “Investment Products” drop-down list on the website indicates that Schwab Crypto is “coming soon.” A company spokesperson confirmed this Declutter that the spot offer is imminent.
“We remain on track to launch our spot crypto offering in the first half of 2026, starting with Bitcoin and [Ethereum],” a company representative said Decipher, adding that interested parties could sign up online for updates and possible early access.
This follows comments from CEO Rick Wurster in early March: who told it Barrons that the offering would begin a limited rollout in the second quarter, with a larger expansion to follow.
A sign-up form indicates that only US residents can access Schwab Crypto, excluding those in New York and Louisiana. The move would mark a significant step in crypto adoption for Schwab, which has more than $12.2 trillion in assets under management.
The company currently offers a number of ways to gain exposure to crypto, including through exchange-traded products or through crypto-related stocks, such as US crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and Bitcoin Treasury Firm Strategy (MSTR), which it uses as examples.
The company, that previously indicated that it was waiting for regulatory clarity to further dip its toes into the world of crypto, has also recently expressed interest in stablecoin exposure. Last year, Wurster said the Westlake, Texas-based company would like to gain exposure to stablecoins, a fast-growing sector of the crypto economy.
“Stablecoins will likely play a role in transactions on blockchains and that is something we are keen to provide,” he says. said during an earnings call.
Shares of the company (SCHW) closed more than 1.5% higher on Thursday, changing hands around $93.77, a gain of about 19% in the last year of trading. It’s an outperformance compared to crypto’s biggest asset, Bitcoin, which is down 18.5% in that time.
Bitcoin recently changed hands around $66,864 on Friday, down 47% from its all-time high of $126,080. Meanwhile, Ethereum is trading around $2,052, down nearly 59% from its all-time high in August.
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