Schwab to offer spot crypto trading and custody to advisors

Charles Schwab plans to let registered investment advisors trade, transfer and custody spot cryptocurrencies on its Schwab Advisor Services platform by mid-2027. The platform custodies more than $5 trillion for over 16,000 RIAs.

Jalina Kerr, managing director at Schwab Advisor Services, outlined the advisor product at a media roundtable. The service will allow advisors to hold client crypto positions on the same platform that holds traditional portfolios, rather than routing those allocations to specialist crypto custodians.

Advisors currently move client crypto to firms such as Coinbase Prime, BitGo and Anchorage, which creates separate reporting and parallel compliance workflows alongside traditional custody. Schwab’s product aims to consolidate trading, transfers and safekeeping within one platform.

Schwab began a retail spot trading rollout in early 2026 that uses Paxos for sub‑custody and execution and started with bitcoin and ether. The advisor offering is expected to list a similar set of assets. Schwab says the mid‑2027 target reflects work needed on custody architecture, federal compliance and trading infrastructure for an institutional-style service.

The planned product could affect specialist custodians. Coinbase Prime oversees roughly $330 billion in institutional assets. Fidelity Digital Assets already offers custody and trade execution to advisors, family offices and hedge funds.

“Advisors increasingly meet clients who already hold digital assets outside their accounts. These clients want positions consolidated into a regulated wealth platform,” Kerr told the roundtable.

Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, observed: “Looks like Schwab planning on rolling out direct spot crypto trading to advisors next year… We’re talking about the largest RIA custodian. Over $5 trillion in assets on custody platform.” Industry observers said smaller custody specialists could face pressure on pricing, onboarding speed and integration depth as large broker-dealers bundle custody, trading and reporting.