Charles Schwab Tacks 0.75% Fee on Every Crypto Trade

Charles Schwab now takes 0.75% on every crypto trade, according to its November 9, 2026 release. Run the math and a $1,000 Bitcoin buy costs $7.50 in fees, while a $10,000 order runs $75. The same 0.75% hits again when a client sells.

Schwab clients can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink. The last three joined the lineup in November, with more tokens promised, after the service opened to all eligible retail clients in October. The pitch is convenience: crypto sits in the same account as a traditional brokerage, which lines up with the three out of four crypto holders who want their assets parked at their bank, per the report.

Coinbase and Robinhood fight on price instead. Schwab stands out by publishing a flat, easy-to-calculate charge, while the other two only surface the total on the order preview screen, and that number moves trade to trade. The hidden piece is the spread — the gap between what a buyer pays and the market price — which never shows up as a receipt line. Coinbase says it builds a spread into its simple buys and may keep any surplus. Robinhood charges no commission and earns from the spread.

Robinhood ran its own test. For a $1,000 Ethereum purchase quoted October 15, it said Coinbase's simple buy left buyers with almost 2% less ETH, while Coinbase Advanced did slightly better. A third party checked the math, though Robinhood still chose to test it — and concluded Coinbase Advanced was the cheapest of the three. Schwab's release lists the 0.75% but mentions no spread on top, so a first-time buyer can compare Schwab's quoted Bitcoin price against a live market price before ordering.

Moving coins around is a different story. Robinhood lets users send crypto to other wallets free, Coinbase charges a network fee for transfers, and Schwab is still rolling out withdrawals. CEO Rick Wurster said on the October 15 earnings call that Schwab is "rolling out the ability for clients to transfer their crypto holdings to Schwab," meaning coins can also come in from other platforms. Deutsche Bank is among the other institutions adding crypto custody.

The priciest trap sits elsewhere: placing a limit order on Coinbase's simple buy screen tacks a 1% execution fee onto a Coinbase fee of up to 2%, depending on payment method. Robinhood's recurring buys start at $1 and withdrawals are free, but costs baked into prices make totals hard to predict. And if the 401(k) crypto rule clears in 2027, retirement account Bitcoin could carry similar fee structures.