Charles Schwab activated direct trading for Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink (LINK) on November 9, 2026, expanding its Schwab Crypto brokerage accounts from two to five cryptocurrencies. The three altcoins now trade alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum on Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile and thinkorswim, giving eligible clients exposure without a separate crypto exchange account.
The rollout completed a plan announced on August 27, 2026, when Schwab said the tokens would be added in the coming months. Delivery took 74 days. The assets are quoted in US-dollar pairs, and each trade carries a 0.75% fee based on the dollar value of the transaction. Schwab says there is no spread, but a $10,000 purchase costs $75 per side, or $150 for a round trip before any price movement. The platform does not offer staking, and crypto holdings are not protected by FDIC insurance or SIPC.
The accounts are offered through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, while Paxos handles trade execution and sub-custody. Schwab warns clients they can lose their entire principal. Token deposits and withdrawals were previously on Schwab’s roadmap, but the company has not confirmed they are live. New York and Louisiana residents remain excluded, along with US territories and non-US clients. Schwab has not said when those states might be added.
Schwab’s head of digital assets, Joe Vietri, said the expansion gives clients greater choice and flexibility in managing digital assets alongside broader investments. The company cited client demand but did not name future assets or provide a timetable. Schwab ended September with $13.33 trillion in client assets, 40.3 million active brokerage accounts and 48.6 million client accounts. At that size, a 0.1% client allocation to crypto would equal roughly $13.3 billion.
The three additions cover different market segments: Solana is used for high-throughput payments and stablecoin transfers, Avalanche supports institutional custom blockchains and tokenized-fund pilots, and Chainlink supplies price data and cross-chain interoperability through CCIP. When Schwab first announced the three tokens on August 27, SOL ended that session up nearly 13%, LINK gained 5.5% and AVAX rose 3.6%, so much of the initial listing catalyst had already been priced in before Monday’s go-live.
The Avalanche listing coincided with a separate announcement from the NYSE on November 9: Avalanche will provide core ledger technology for the clearing firm supporting NYSE’s planned tokenized securities venue. That venue is expected to enable around-the-clock trading of blockchain-based stocks, with trades matched on NYSE’s Pillar engine and settled on Avalanche. AVAX rose about 8% over 24 hours, with gains reflecting both the Schwab listing and the NYSE news.
For investors, Schwab’s 0.75% per-trade fee compares with Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade, which began spot BTC, ETH and SOL trading in July at 0.50%, and spot bitcoin ETFs charging roughly 0.25% annually. Schwab clients also hold about 20% of all US spot crypto exchange-traded product assets, according to an April estimate, making direct token ownership more appealing to active traders than long-term holders.
