Charles Schwab's head of advisor experience, Jalina Kerr, recently disclosed that the firm plans to roll out cryptocurrency spot trading functionality for financial advisors on its custody platform by 2027. The project is moving forward smoothly, with an estimated launch possibly around mid-2027. Earlier this year, Schwab had already introduced spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum to its retail clients.
Because digital assets do not yet have a unified regulatory framework, every step from funding, custody to withdrawal must be carefully designed. Kerr noted that currently, financial advisors tend to allocate client assets to crypto through exchange-traded products (ETPs), but market interest in direct spot trading services is on the rise.
Competitor Fidelity has already taken a lead by offering crypto custody and trading services to wealth management advisors, highlighting an intensifying competition among traditional financial institutions in the digital asset space.