Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab are bringing crypto trading directly to ordinary brokerage accounts, a move that could reshape how millions of retail investors buy and sell digital assets. E*Trade, which Morgan Stanley owns, has been working on the plan since September 2025 and targets a first-half 2026 launch via infrastructure provider Zerohash. Charles Schwab went live this week with custody at its own Premier Bank, execution through Paxos, and phased access starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
E*Trade and Schwab go live
E*Trade's 8.6 million self-directed clients generate about 1 million average daily revenue trades and hold $1.67 trillion in assets. The platform hasn't announced an exact launch date, but the September 2025 start of development suggests a rollout is imminent. Charles Schwab's offering is already active, with educational tools built in and a phased rollout that starts with the two biggest cryptocurrencies. Schwab's clients already hold about 20% of all US spot crypto exchange-traded products, so the firm knows its user base wants direct access.
Why now
The regulatory environment has shifted fast. The FDIC rescinded its prior-approval requirement for permissible crypto activities in March 2025. The OCC clarified in May 2025 that national banks can buy and sell customer-custodied crypto and outsource execution—provided they manage risk. SEC staff followed up with an interim statement on broker-dealer registration issues for certain crypto interfaces in April 2026. Those three changes gave banks and brokerages a clear enough path to move forward without fear of retroactive enforcement.
Competition heats up
Standard Chartered launched institutional spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in July 2025. Goldman Sachs filed for its first Bitcoin ETF in April 2026. JPMorgan started exploring institutional crypto trading in December 2025. Fidelity got OCC approval in February 2026 for bank-based crypto custody and execution. The big banks aren't waiting for each other. Retail-facing moves from E*Trade and Schwab put pressure on Robinhood, which reported Q1 crypto notional volume down 48% year-over-year to $24 billion and crypto revenue down 47%.
Market snapshot
Cumulative net inflows into US-traded spot Bitcoin ETFs have hit roughly $59.7 billion. BlackRock's IBIT alone holds $66.7 billion in assets. Those numbers suggest demand is real, not speculative hype. The question is whether direct brokerage access will pull money from existing ETF holders or bring in fresh capital. The Robinhood decline hints that pure-play crypto apps may be losing share to full-service brokers.
E*Trade's launch is the next concrete milestone to watch. If it hits the first-half 2026 target, the second quarter will see two of the largest US brokerages offering crypto side by side. That's a level of mainstream access the industry hasn't had before.
