Charles Schwab to Add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to…

Charles Schwab intends to add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to its cryptocurrency trading platform in the coming months, expanding its direct digital-asset lineup beyond Bitcoin and Ether. The move widens a retail crypto business that Schwab Crypto began rolling out to clients in May, when customers gained the ability to trade BTC and ETH directly alongside conventional holdings through Schwab's website, mobile app and the thinkorswim platform.

Bringing crypto into the same environment used for stocks, exchange-traded funds and other traditional investments means clients no longer need a separate account at a crypto-native venue. Schwab has said it expects to add more digital assets over time, though it has not named further tokens or set a timeline beyond the three now scheduled.

Pricing and access

Schwab charges 75 basis points, or 0.75%, of the dollar value of each crypto transaction. The service is available across the United States with the exception of New York and Louisiana, and is not offered in U.S. territories or international markets. Crypto accounts are provided through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, while affiliated brokerage Charles Schwab & Co. carries out certain operational functions on the bank's behalf — a structure that keeps digital assets inside Schwab's existing financial services network rather than treating them as a standalone venture.

The scale of that network is the main opportunity. As of July 31, Schwab reported $13.04 trillion in client assets across 39.9 million active brokerage accounts. Even limited adoption could generate meaningful trading volume, though the firm will need to persuade investors that the convenience of trading inside Schwab offsets its transaction cost and narrower asset selection relative to dedicated crypto exchanges.

Solana operates a high-throughput blockchain used in decentralized finance and payments, Avalanche provides another smart-contract network, and Chainlink supplies decentralized data infrastructure linking blockchain applications to external information. Together they move Schwab beyond assets tied mainly to Bitcoin's store-of-value use case and Ethereum's smart-contract ecosystem, offering exposure to other parts of the market without opening the platform to a much longer token list. Bitcoin and Ether already benefit from broad institutional recognition and U.S. exchange-traded products, so SOL, AVAX and LINK will serve as a test of how far demand among traditional brokerage clients extends to individual altcoins.

Schwab is broadening its product range elsewhere as well. The firm plans to offer prediction contracts tied to the S&P 500 through a partnership with Cboe Global Markets, expected to launch within months, allowing customers to take positions on whether the index closes above or below specified levels. The company reported record second-quarter net revenue of $7.1 billion and net income of $2.8 billion, giving it substantial resources to develop these products.