Schwab crypto fees are a flat 0.75% on every buy and sell, and since Nov. 9, 2026 that price also covers Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink. It undercuts Fidelity Crypto’s 1% and Coinbase Advanced’s 0.90% entry taker fee. But a $10,000 bitcoin round trip still costs $150, or six years of IBIT’s 0.25% expense ratio. For holds under six years, a spot ETF in the same Schwab account costs less.
Key takeaways
- Schwab Crypto charges 0.75% on each buy and sell and says it adds no markup.
- A $10,000 bitcoin round trip costs $150 in Schwab Crypto fees.
- Holding IBIT in a Schwab brokerage account costs $25 a year per $10,000.
What are Schwab crypto fees after the Nov. 9 expansion?
Schwab charges 0.75% of the trade’s value on every crypto buy and every sell, with a $0.01 minimum and no markup added to quotes, according to its Schwab Crypto FAQ. On Nov. 9, 2026 the same rate began applying to Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, which brings the menu to five coins alongside bitcoin and ether.
Schwab first announced the three tokens in an Aug. 27 press release. The Daily Hodl reported on Nov. 10 that all three now trade on Schwab.com, the Schwab Mobile app and thinkorswim. The rollout began with early access in May and reached all eligible retail clients in October.
The fine print most buyers miss
- Accounts: the FAQ lists individual and joint brokerage accounts as the eligible accounts to link. IRAs are not on that list.
- Geography: Schwab Crypto is not available in New York or Louisiana.
- Size caps: $2 million per order for bitcoin and ether, $1 million for the three new coins, and a $10 million cost-basis cap per asset.
- Protection: the coins are not FDIC insured or SIPC protected. Dollar cash in the account can be FDIC insured up to $250,000.
- Order math: dollar buys include the fee in the amount you enter, so a $10,000 buy delivers about $9,925 of bitcoin.
Is Schwab crypto cheaper than Coinbase?
It depends on the order type, and the gap is measurable. Schwab’s 0.75% beats a Coinbase Advanced market order at the US entry tier, where the taker fee is 0.90%. A Coinbase limit order that rests on the book pays 0.50%, which beats Schwab. Traders above $50,000 a month pay far less on Coinbase.
Those Coinbase rates come from Coinbase’s US fee table as checked by Altrady on Oct. 21, 2026, after Coinbase restructured its tiers on Sept. 16. Coinbase shows the full schedule only behind a login. Its help center says Advanced fees are subject to experimentation, with the final price always shown on the order preview.
The simple Coinbase buy button costs more. Coinbase’s pricing disclosures say simple trades carry a spread in the quoted price on top of any listed fee, and Altrady notes a 1% fee on simple limit orders.
| Route | Cost per trade | Annual holding cost | Exposure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schwab Crypto | 0.75% buy and sell | $0 | BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, LINK |
| Coinbase Advanced, US entry tier | 0.50% maker / 0.90% taker | $0 | Full Coinbase spot menu |
| Coinbase Advanced, $10,000+ monthly volume | 0.35% maker / 0.75% taker | $0 | Full Coinbase spot menu |
| Coinbase simple trade | Spread plus fee, varies | $0 | Full Coinbase spot menu |
| Fidelity Crypto | 1% buy and sell | $0 | BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL, FIDD |
| IBIT in a Schwab brokerage account | $0 online commission | 0.25% | Bitcoin |
| MSBT in a Schwab brokerage account | $0 online commission | 0.14% | Bitcoin |
Track BTCUSD and IBIT yourself
Put Bitcoin and the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on one free chart and set a price alert before the Fed decides on December 9, 2026.
Paid links: Wealth Engine earns a commission if you subscribe to TradingView, at no extra cost to you.
How much does a $10,000 bitcoin trade cost on each platform?
On a $10,000 position bought and later sold at the same price, Schwab Crypto costs $150 in fees, Fidelity Crypto $200, and Coinbase Advanced between $100 and $180 depending on order type. A bitcoin ETF held a full year in a Schwab brokerage account costs $25 with IBIT or $14 with MSBT.
- Schwab Crypto: $10,000 × 0.75% = $75 to buy, $75 to sell. Total: $150.
- Fidelity Crypto: $10,000 × 1% = $100 each way. Total: $200.
- Coinbase Advanced, market orders at the entry tier: $10,000 × 0.90% = $90 each way. Total: $180.
- Coinbase Advanced, limit orders filled as maker: $10,000 × 0.50% = $50 each way. Total: $100.
- IBIT: $0 commissions, then $10,000 × 0.25% = $25 per year held.
- MSBT: $0 commissions, then $10,000 × 0.14% = $14 per year held.
BlackRock lists IBIT’s expense ratio at 0.25%. The Morgan Stanley fact sheet dated Aug. 31, 2026 shows MSBT at 0.14%, gross and net. We ran the full fund-by-fund race in our cheapest bitcoin ETF ranking.
The breakeven: six years for IBIT, about 11 for MSBT
Direct ownership front-loads the cost. ETFs spread it out. Divide Schwab’s $150 round trip by IBIT’s $25 a year and the ETF stays cheaper for six years. Against MSBT’s $14, the breakeven stretches to about 10.7 years.
If you never plan to sell, only the $75 entry fee counts. Then IBIT catches up after three years and MSBT after about 5.4. These figures assume a flat price. If bitcoin rises, both the ETF’s annual fee and Schwab’s sell fee grow with the position.
What the fee does to a monthly buying plan
Dollar-cost averaging magnifies a per-trade fee. A $500 monthly buy at Schwab Crypto pays $3.75 each time, or $45 on $6,000 invested over a year. That is a fixed 0.75% drag on every new dollar. The same $500 buy of a US-listed ETF online at Schwab carries no commission, per Schwab’s pricing page.
Which crypto route fits which investor?
Match the route to what you plan to do with the coins. Long-term holders who will never move bitcoin off Schwab pay less through a spot ETF. People who want coins they can withdraw, or a Solana position next to their stocks, pay 0.75% a trade for that option. Frequent limit-order traders belong on Coinbase Advanced.
| Investor profile | Lowest-cost route on these numbers | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Holds bitcoin under six years, never withdraws | MSBT or IBIT in a Schwab brokerage account | No coins to withdraw; 0.14% to 0.25% a year |
| Wants coins in a personal wallet later | Schwab Crypto or Coinbase | Schwab caps withdrawals at $5,000 per transfer |
| Trades often with limit orders | Coinbase Advanced | 0.50% maker at entry, 0.15% from $50,000 monthly volume |
| Wants SOL, AVAX or LINK beside stocks | Schwab Crypto | 0.75% each way; the three cannot be transferred out yet |
| Wants coins inside an IRA | Fidelity Crypto IRA | 1% per trade; Schwab Crypto does not list IRAs as eligible |
The custody trade-off itself is older than Schwab’s product. We priced it in Bitcoin ETF vs self-custody, and the logic holds: you pay for the right to hold the keys.
Why do Schwab’s crypto withdrawal limits matter?
Because they make leaving slow. Schwab caps crypto withdrawals at $5,000 per transfer and three transfers per 24 hours. Only bitcoin and ether can move at all, and those transfers are still in beta. The three coins added Nov. 9 list transfers as “coming soon,” so selling at 0.75% is their only exit today.
The math is blunt. At $15,000 a day, moving a $100,000 bitcoin position to a hardware wallet takes 20 transfers spread over seven days. Each one also pays a blockchain network fee, though Schwab charges nothing itself to send or receive.
That is the skeptical read on this expansion: Schwab is adding coins faster than ways to take them out. It may be deliberate risk control, but it makes the 0.75% sell fee harder to avoid than the fee table suggests.
Custody is what Schwab offers in return. Coins sit at Charles Schwab Premier Bank, with Paxos Trust Company as sub-custodian and most assets in cold storage, per the FAQ. ETF shares, by contrast, sit in a brokerage account at Charles Schwab & Co., a SIPC member.
Does a falling bitcoin price make trading fees matter more?
Yes, because a percentage fee is fixed while returns are not. Bitcoin was $74,260.59 at 7:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 10, 2026, about 10% below its price a month earlier, according to Fortune’s daily tracker. In a flat or falling market, a 1.5% round trip eats a bigger share of whatever return remains.
Tuesday’s inflation data added pressure. October CPI rose 0.4% and core rose 0.3%, against Dow Jones forecasts of 0.3% and 0.2%, CNBC reported. Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said afterward that she sees a need for two more quarter-point hikes, according to The MortgagePoint.
Higher rates raise the opportunity cost of idle dollars, and cash parked in a Schwab Crypto account earns nothing. For how bitcoin held up against gold during election week, see our bitcoin vs gold breakdown.
What to watch next
Three dated releases could move bitcoin and cash yields before year-end, and one undated Schwab promise could change the custody math. None of them changes today’s fee schedules. Watch them anyway: holding period decides the ETF-versus-coin breakeven, and the custody gap is the main argument against Schwab’s product.
- Dec. 4, 2026: the November jobs report, per the BLS release calendar.
- Dec. 9, 2026: the Fed’s rate decision closes its Dec. 8–9 meeting, according to the Federal Reserve calendar.
- Dec. 10, 2026: November CPI, one day after the Fed decides, per the BLS CPI schedule.
- No date yet: transfers for Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, which Schwab lists as “coming soon.”
Schwab crypto fees: frequently asked questions
Short answers to the practical questions behind Schwab’s crypto pricing. Each one uses the figures verified above, as of Nov. 10, 2026, from Schwab, Fidelity, Coinbase’s US fee table via Altrady, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley. Fees change, so check the order preview before you trade.
What are Schwab crypto fees?
Schwab charges 0.75% of the trade’s value on each crypto buy and each sell, with a $0.01 minimum fee. The estimated fee is shown before you submit the order.
Does Schwab add a spread to crypto trades?
Schwab’s FAQ says it does not add a markup to crypto quotes or trades. The 0.75% fee is the visible cost.
Is a bitcoin ETF cheaper than buying bitcoin directly at Schwab?
For most holding periods, yes. A $10,000 round trip in Schwab Crypto costs $150. IBIT costs $25 a year and MSBT $14 a year with no commission, so the ETF stays cheaper for about six years with IBIT and 10.7 years with MSBT.
Is Schwab crypto cheaper than Coinbase?
Schwab’s 0.75% is cheaper than a Coinbase Advanced market order at the US entry tier, which costs 0.90%. It is more expensive than a Coinbase limit order filled as maker at 0.50%, and than Coinbase’s higher-volume tiers.
Can I withdraw crypto from Schwab?
Only bitcoin and ether, in a beta rollout, up to $5,000 per transfer and three transfers per 24 hours. Schwab lists transfers for Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink as coming soon.
Is crypto at Schwab FDIC insured or SIPC protected?
No. Schwab says the coins are not FDIC insured or SIPC protected. Only US dollar cash in the crypto account can be FDIC insured, up to $250,000.
Can I hold Schwab Crypto in an IRA?
Schwab’s FAQ lists individual and joint brokerage accounts as the eligible accounts to link, and does not list IRAs. Fidelity offers Fidelity Crypto IRAs at the same 1% fee as its regular crypto accounts.
The bottom line
Schwab’s 0.75% is a fair price for convenience, not the cheapest way to own bitcoin. If you will hold less than six years and never need the coins themselves, MSBT or IBIT in the same Schwab account costs less. Pay Schwab’s fee only if you want withdrawable coins, or the new altcoins, next to your stocks.
Coinbase Advanced wins for anyone placing limit orders, and Fidelity’s 1% is the priciest of the brokerage routes. The cost Schwab’s fee table does not show is the exit: a $5,000 withdrawal cap, and no transfers at all yet for its three newest coins.
Free guide · 12 pages
AI Tools Every Investor Should Use in 2026
10 tools for research, stock signals, charts and crypto, what each one costs, three ready-made stacks from $0 a month and 7 copy-paste prompts for filings and earnings calls. Enter your email and we will send it to you.
Plus one email a week: AI Money This Week, every Sunday. Unsubscribe anytime.
This article is journalism, not investment advice. Do your own research before investing.
Sources
- Charles Schwab: Schwab Crypto FAQ (fees, transfers, limits, custody)
- Charles Schwab press release, Aug. 27, 2026: plans to add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink
- Charles Schwab: Commissions and fees
- The Daily Hodl, Nov. 10, 2026: Schwab adds Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink
- Fidelity Crypto Help: Trading basics
- Coinbase Help: Coinbase Advanced fees
- Coinbase Help: Pricing and fees disclosures
- Altrady, Oct. 21, 2026: Coinbase Advanced Trade fees after the September 2026 changes
- BlackRock: iShares Bitcoin Trust fees
- Morgan Stanley: MSBT fact sheet, Aug. 31, 2026
- Fortune: Price of bitcoin, Nov. 10, 2026
- CNBC, Nov. 10, 2026: Consumer prices rose 0.4% in October
- The MortgagePoint, Nov. 10, 2026: Logan on further rate hikes
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: CPI release schedule
- Federal Reserve: December 2026 calendar
Wealth Engine researches and drafts with AI tools and checks every figure against the sources above. How we report.
Leave a Reply