Three of the largest U.S. retail brokerages — Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley's E*Trade, and Fidelity Investments — are scheduled to offer direct cryptocurrency trading to a combined client base exceeding 70 million funded accounts by mid-2026. Schwab, managing $11.9 trillion in client assets acro...
"Our expectation is that with the changing regulatory environment, we are hopeful and likely to be able to launch direct spot crypto. Our goal is to do that in the next 12 months, and we are on a great path to be able to do that." — Rick Wurster, CEO, Charles Schwab
Three of the largest U.S. retail brokerages — Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley's ETrade, and Fidelity Investments — are scheduled to offer direct cryptocurrency trading to a combined client base exceeding 70 million funded accounts by mid-2026. Schwab, managing $11.9 trillion in client assets across 37 million accounts, plans to launch spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading through its Schwab Crypto account as early as mid-April. ETrade, with 6 million active accounts backed by Morgan Stanley's $8 trillion asset base, will offer Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana via infrastructure partner Zerohash. Fidelity has already launched a no-fee Crypto IRA covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
The combined AUM entering crypto distribution channels — approximately $31.9 trillion across the three firms — dwarfs the existing crypto brokerage market. Coinbase reported $7.2 billion in full-year 2025 revenue with an estimated 120 million verified users; Robinhood posted $4.5 billion in revenue with 27 million funded accounts. The question is whether scale and trust offset a multi-year head start in product depth and crypto-native infrastructure.
Charles Schwab confirmed on April 3 that its spot crypto trading service remains on track for H1 2026. CEO Rick Wurster stated that visits to Schwab's crypto platform have increased 90% year-over-year, and that approximately one-third of new retail accounts now originate from clients under age 28. Trading will begin on the Thinkorswim platform before expanding to Schwab.com and mobile. The rollout follows a phased approach: internal employee testing, invited clients, then general availability. The firm already offers Bitcoin futures, the Schwab Crypto Thematic Index ETF (STCE), and a range of crypto-linked ETFs.
Morgan Stanley / E*Trade plans to launch direct crypto trading for E*Trade retail clients in H1 2026. The initial offering covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Morgan Stanley has partnered with Zerohash — a crypto infrastructure firm valued at $1 billion after a $104 million fundraise — for liquidity, custody, and settlement. The bank also filed SEC registration statements in January 2026 for a spot Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) and a Solana Trust. A proprietary digital wallet supporting crypto and tokenized assets is planned for H2 2026.
Fidelity Investments took a different entry point. On April 2, 2025, the firm launched a Crypto IRA — available in Roth, traditional, and rollover formats — offering direct exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. There is no account opening or maintenance fee; Fidelity Digital Assets charges a 1% spread on crypto buy/sell transactions. Fidelity Digital Assets provides institutional-grade cold storage custody. The product is available to U.S. residents age 18+ in eligible states, excluding California and Oregon.
The three entrants share a common limitation: narrow asset coverage. Schwab launches with two tokens. E*Trade launches with three. Fidelity's IRA covers three.
By contrast, Coinbase supports over 250 cryptocurrencies and has built an integrated ecosystem including Base (its Layer 2 network), USDC stablecoin revenue sharing, staking services, a derivatives exchange, and institutional custody through Coinbase Prime. Robinhood offers trading in over two dozen tokens and operates Bitstamp (acquired in 2024), its own prediction market integration via Kalshi, and has signaled development of Robinhood Chain for on-chain infrastructure.
The infrastructure gap extends beyond token count. Schwab and Fidelity are building on proprietary banking infrastructure, which provides regulatory clarity but limits speed of iteration. E*Trade's reliance on Zerohash — an external provider — introduces counterparty dependency but allows faster deployment. None of the three TradFi entrants currently offer staking, lending, derivatives, or on-chain wallet functionality at launch.
The product comparison:
| Feature | Schwab | E*Trade | Fidelity IRA | Coinbase | Robinhood | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Tokens at launch | 2 | 3 | 3 | 250+ | 25+ | | Spot trading | Yes | Yes | Yes (IRA only) | Yes | Yes | | Derivatives | BTC futures only | No | No | Yes | Yes (via Bitstamp) | | Staking | No | No | No | Yes | In development | | On-chain wallet | No | Planned H2 2026 | No | Yes | Planned | | Equities trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (launched Feb 2026) | Yes |
The crypto-native platforms are not standing still. Coinbase launched commission-free stock and ETF trading for all U.S. users in February 2026, offering 24/5 trading across 8,000+ securities through a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions for clearing and custody. Coinbase also partnered with Yahoo Finance for integrated research-to-execution functionality. The firm received conditional OCC approval to become a trust bank, further blurring the line between crypto exchange and full-service financial institution.
Coinbase's full-year 2025 financials tell the story of a platform diversifying away from pure trading revenue:
Robinhood's 2025 results showed its own expansion trajectory:
Both firms have transformed from single-product platforms into multi-asset financial services companies. The convergence is bilateral: TradFi brokerages are adding crypto; crypto platforms are adding equities.
Bernstein analysts noted in a March 2026 report that Schwab and E*Trade will likely have "limited impact" on crypto-native exchanges. The core argument: "By waiting for regulatory clarity, they have let [early movers] grab much of the market."
The product gap quantifies the skepticism. Fidelity Digital Assets, which entered crypto years before its peers, still only offers three tokens. The breadth disparity — three tokens versus 250+ — represents more than a product gap. It reflects fundamentally different infrastructure architectures. Crypto-native platforms built modular systems designed for rapid token onboarding. TradFi firms built compliance-first systems designed for regulatory durability.
However, Bernstein acknowledged that scale could offset lateness. Schwab's 37 million clients and E*Trade's 6 million accounts represent distribution channels that took crypto-native firms years to build. The critical variable is conversion rate: what percentage of existing brokerage clients will activate crypto trading when it appears alongside their existing stock and bond portfolios?
Wurster offered one data point: "I think the cryptocurrency business will be accretive, but we've already won over these clients even without it." The implication is that crypto is a retention and engagement tool for Schwab, not a primary revenue driver — a fundamentally different strategic calculus than Coinbase or Robinhood, where crypto trading remains a significant revenue component.
Fee competition is already compressing margins across the industry. Coinbase's stock trading launches at zero commission. Robinhood has long operated on a zero-commission model for both equities and crypto. Schwab built its brand on zero-commission stock trading.
The question is how crypto trading fees will be structured at the TradFi entrants. Fidelity charges a 1% spread on crypto transactions — significantly above Coinbase's maker/taker fees (which range from 0% to 0.60% depending on volume tier) and Robinhood's embedded spread model. Schwab and E*Trade have not disclosed their fee structures.
For context, Coinbase's transaction revenue comprised approximately 58% of total net revenue in Q3 2025. Robinhood's crypto revenue hit $268 million in Q3 2025, representing roughly 21% of total net revenues. If TradFi entrants undercut on fees to drive adoption, the margin compression could accelerate across the industry.
The TradFi brokerage entry into crypto represents a distribution expansion, not a product expansion. The three firms collectively bring $31.9 trillion in client assets and 70+ million accounts into crypto-adjacent distribution channels. But the product offering at launch — a handful of tokens, no staking, no derivatives, no on-chain wallets — suggests these are conservative initial positions designed to capture existing client demand rather than compete for crypto-native users.
The strategic implications break along two axes:
For crypto-native platforms: The threat is not in the product layer but in the distribution layer. A Schwab client who can buy Bitcoin alongside their S&P 500 index fund may never open a Coinbase account. The counter-strategy — visible in Coinbase's equity trading launch and Robinhood's super-app expansion — is to become the everything-platform that eliminates the need for a traditional brokerage.
For TradFi entrants: The risk is that limited crypto offerings become a check-the-box feature rather than a meaningful business line. If Schwab launches with two tokens and no staking, the revenue contribution may be marginal compared to the firm's $11.9 trillion asset base. The more significant value may be demographic: capturing the one-third of new accounts coming from clients under 28.
The entry of $31.9 trillion-AUM brokerages into cryptocurrency trading marks a structural shift in distribution rather than a competitive threat to crypto-native product suites. The narrow initial offerings from Schwab, E*Trade, and Fidelity are designed to serve existing clients, not to poach users from Coinbase or Robinhood. The crypto-native platforms, in turn, are expanding into equities and traditional financial services.
The result is convergence. Within 12-18 months, the distinction between "brokerage" and "crypto exchange" may become meaningless for the average retail investor. The firms that survive this convergence will be those that combine distribution scale with product depth — a combination that, as of April 2026, no single platform has yet achieved.