The short version
- Schwab crypto clients can now buy and sell Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink next to Bitcoin and Ethereum, five coins in all, at 75 basis points ($7.50 per $1,000) a trade.
- Schwab Crypto is open in every US state except New York and Louisiana; the bank arm holds the coins, with Paxos as sub-custodian.
- SOL and LINK barely moved after the launch, near $86.22 and $10.64 at the time of writing; Schwab has 40.3 million brokerage accounts but hasn’t said how many use crypto.
Wall Street’s biggest retail broker just tripled its coin list, and the coins barely noticed. On Monday, Charles Schwab said in a press release that Schwab Crypto clients can now buy and sell Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink’s LINK token, next to the Bitcoin and Ethereum it has offered since the platform opened.
That is five assets in total. The fee stays at 75 basis points, or $7.50 on every $1,000 traded. So why did the prices hardly move, and who can actually use it?
Schwab posted it at 14:15 UTC, a quarter past nine in the morning in New York:
As of today, Schwab Crypto™ clients can buy and sell solana (SOL), avalanche (AVAX), and chainlink (LINK), in addition to bitcoin and ethereum. These new tokens are part of Schwab’s plans to thoughtfully expand its digital asset offering.
Learn more: spr.ly/6019BHFa25
What Schwab Crypto Clients Can Trade Now
The three new pairs are SOL/USD, AVAX/USD and LINK/USD, the press release says. Schwab first named them in late August without a date. Monday was the switch-on.
Schwab Crypto started as early access in May 2026 and opened to all eligible retail clients in October. It is not a brokerage account. The coins sit with Charles Schwab Premier Bank, the group’s bank arm, as custodian, and Schwab’s quarterly 10-Q filing names Paxos Trust Company as the sub-custodian that holds the coins and executes the trades. The same filing says Schwab has started a phased rollout of transfers, so clients can move coins they already own onto the platform.
Who is eligible? Clients in every US state except New York and Louisiana. There is no access in US territories or abroad, and Schwab says not every client will qualify. The holdings carry no FDIC or SIPC protection, since the coins are neither deposits nor securities.
On Schwab crypto fees, the company calls its 75 basis points “among the lowest in the industry.” Joe Vietri, Schwab’s head of digital assets, said the aim is to give clients “greater choice and flexibility in how they invest in digital assets alongside their broader investments.”
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Why Did SOL, LINK and AVAX Barely Move?
Part of it was priced in back in August. On August 27, the day Schwab first named the three coins, SOL closed 6.9% higher on Binance, LINK 2.5% and AVAX 1.1%. By Monday the launch was old news for traders.
At the time of writing, SOL trades at $86.22 on Binance, a touch below the $86.78 it opened at in the hour of Schwab’s post. LINK sits at $10.64, up from $10.60 over the same stretch. Neither cleared its 24-hour high by much.
Chainlink posted its own note two hours later, leaning on Schwab’s size:
LIVE: @CharlesSchwab clients can now access the LINK token on Schwab Crypto.
Schwab is the largest brokerage platform in the U.S. with over 40 million accounts and $12+ trillion in client assets.
AVAX is the odd one out, up about 8% in 24 hours. Most of that came from a different headline the same day: Avalanche will run the clearing ledger for an NYSE-affiliated tokenized stock venue. Since Schwab’s post, AVAX has actually slipped, from $8.81 to $8.47.
SIDE TRAIL: How to Buy Your First Crypto: Exchanges, Fees and KYC Without the Headaches
How Big Is Schwab’s Reach?
Large, on paper. Schwab had 40.3 million active brokerage accounts and $13.33 trillion in client assets at September 30, according to the same 10-Q. That is the pool Chainlink and Avalanche quoted on X.
It is not the number of crypto users, though. Schwab Crypto is a separate account held at the bank, and Schwab has not said how many clients have one, or how much they trade. For a client who already holds stocks and ETFs there, the pitch is convenience: coins and shares on one screen in Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile and thinkorswim, with 24/7 phone and chat support.
For Schwab crypto trading in SOL, AVAX and LINK, that works more slowly than a candle. Each new listing at a broker this size opens a door that used to need a crypto exchange signup, and the flow, if it comes, builds over months.
The next coins aren’t named. “Schwab plans to add additional cryptocurrencies and digital assets to the Schwab Crypto platform over time,” the release says.
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VikingXBT has been trading crypto since 2017. The focus is futures, onchain data and automation. Onchain flows get checked before a chart is trusted, and anything repetitive gets automated. VikingXBT built Base Camp's own onchain scanner, which flags bundlers, snipers, dev holdings and wallet clusters in one view, and backtests strategies before trading them.
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