‍#Gate13周年

Charles Schwab enters the retail crypto market: a $12 trillion giant joins, are top exchanges panicking?‌‌‌‌‌‌

On April 16, Charles Schwab officially announced the launch of Schwab Crypto spot trading service, supporting direct trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which will be phased in for retail clients over the coming weeks. The announcement came suddenly but was not unexpected; Schwab CEO had already stated in 2025: “We will compete with Cbase.”

As of the end of February 2026, Schwab manages client assets totaling $12.22 trillion, with 38.9 million active brokerage accounts. What does $12 trillion mean? It exceeds the total market value of all listed crypto companies in the U.S. and is more than 15 times Cbase’s total market cap. For Cbase, which has long dominated the U.S. retail crypto market, this trillion-dollar competitor is indeed worth serious attention.

Schwab boasts nearly 39 million active brokerage accounts and $12.22 trillion in client assets. This figure far surpasses the combined market value of all listed U.S. crypto companies.

Schwab entering the retail crypto market, scale itself is not a weapon, but scale multiplied by convenience becomes a lethal weapon.

In the past, Schwab clients wanting to buy cryptocurrencies faced this process: log in to Schwab → withdraw → transfer to Cbase → open an account → trade. Each step was an opportunity for “user loss.” Now, on the same interface—stocks, ETFs, crypto assets—one-click switching. Schwab internally estimates that its clients already hold about 20% of their spot crypto ETF shares. This means the demand is there, only missing an entry point.

This move by Schwab into the retail crypto market is driven by brand trust, which is its biggest moat.

Schwab’s crypto assets are held in custody by its banking subsidiary, with trading executed by the federally regulated trust company Paxos. For older traditional investors, the words “bank custody” surpass any cold wallet promotion by crypto exchanges.

A survey of Schwab clients shows that the top three factors when choosing a crypto trading platform are: price transparency, brand reputation, and asset security. We believe this is precisely the shortcoming that native crypto exchanges like Cbase have long faced.

Recent positive news includes Morgan Stanley launching a physical Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) on April 8, which saw inflows of $30.6 million on its first day. Robinhood’s crypto trading volume reached $25 billion by February 2026, a 74% year-over-year increase. Fidelity launched the digital dollar stablecoin FIDD. This may also be directly related to recent price increases, but regardless, traditional financial markets are gradually infiltrating the crypto space, bringing not only immense wealth and users but also respect and recognition from traditional finance. In the eyes of the small finance enthusiast, all signs indicate that the current bear market is only temporary, and Bitcoin’s future remains vast and promising!$BTC $GT $ETH