Предстоящото предлагане на криптовалути от Charles Schwab. Какво трябва да знаете. — Barrons.com

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By Andrew Welsch

Charles Schwab anticipates making a direct cryptocurrency offering available in the second quarter to a limited group of clients, with a larger expansion to follow, CEO Rick Wurster tells Barron's.

Wurster acknowledges that the "fervor" around digital assets has declined in recent months as prices for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have tumbled. Nonetheless, being able to enable customers to directly hold Bitcoin and Ethereum at Schwab is a necessity, he says: "Clients are still interested in it."

Over the past two years, many of Schwab's customers have chosen to invest in crypto through exchange-traded funds, such as the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which launched in January 2024. Still, Schwab's direct offering may allow the company to pick up more assets from customers who currently hold Bitcoin and Ethereum elsewhere and would like to consolidate their assets at one firm.

"We think it'll round out our offering," Wurster says. "And I think how blockchain and tokenization play out is still to be determined."

The price of Bitcoin has fallen 19% this year as investors have dialed back on risky assets and sought out havens such as gold. The S&P 500 is down 1% this year. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF is up 20%.

Schwab's foray into digital assets also comes as it plans to ramp up its alternative investment offering via its recently closed acquisition of private markets exchange Forge Global Holdings. Through Forge's marketplace, eligible investors can invest in pre-IPO companies through direct private share purchases, single company funds, and multicompany funds.

"We closed this a week ago, and we have had a lot of clients ask about how they can be a part of this," Wurster says.

More companies have been choosing to remain private for longer, but investing in private companies has traditionally been restricted to wealthy investors and institutions.

Wurster compares Schwab's goal of broadening access to private assets to what it did for investing in individual stocks; the company was a leader in significantly lowering commissions for stock trades, which eventually became free.

Wurster says that Schwab can use Forge to help create more liquidity, interest in the asset class, and ultimately a better marketplace. The company plans to make Forge available to both individual investors and independent financial advisors who custody assets at Schwab. "We're targeting the third quarter for when you can log in to Schwab.com and access the Forge experience," he says.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260311006405:0/