Schwab Crypto Charges 0.75% a Trade: A $1,000 SOL Buy Costs $7.50, Against $1 at a 0.1% Exchange Spot Rate

What Schwab actually charges

Schwab's crypto page describes the price as "0.75% of your trade value with zero spread." The FAQ fills in the mechanics:

• The 0.75% fee applies to each transaction, buys and sells alike.
• The minimum fee is $0.01.
• The fee is a percentage of the order's notional value, and Schwab shows it before you submit.
• The minimum order is $1. Orders above $1 million must be limit orders.
• Market, limit, stop and stop-limit orders work on all Schwab platforms; trailing stops and other advanced types are on thinkorswim.

The minimum fee matters only at the very bottom. A $1 order at 0.75% works out to $0.0075, so the $0.01 floor applies and the effective rate is 1%. From about $1.34 upward the percentage takes over ($0.01 ÷ 0.75% ≈ $1.33).

The PANews report says Schwab Crypto began a phased rollout in May and opened to all eligible retail clients in October, and that Schwab plans to add more assets. Schwab's page now lists BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX and LINK as available "with more coming soon."

The same trade on three exchanges

The table uses the regular-user spot rates recorded in our exchange fact file from each venue's official fee page on November 7, and the rebate share in our partner registry read this run.

The arithmetic for the Bitget row: $1,000 × 0.10% = $1.00 fee; $1.00 × 60% = $0.60 back; $1.00 − $0.60 = $0.40. The rebate is a share of the fee you paid, not a share of the trade.

A round trip doubles everything. Buying and later selling $1,000 of SOL on Schwab costs $15.00 in fees. On Bitget at the taker rate it costs $2.00 before the rebate and $0.80 after. At $10,000 a side, Schwab's round trip is $150.00 and Bitget's is $8.00 after the rebate.

"Zero spread" is the one point in Schwab's favour

Exchanges charge a fee and you also cross the order book. Schwab's page says its 0.75% comes with zero spread. So the honest comparison adds the exchange spread to the exchange fee.

At 04:52 SGT on November 10, OKX's public SOL-USDT ticker showed a best bid of $86.80 and a best ask of $86.81. That one-cent gap is 0.0115% of the price, about 12 cents on a $1,000 order if you paid the whole gap. AVAX-USDT showed $8.598 against $8.600, a 0.023% gap, and LINK-USDT $10.688 against $10.690, about 0.019%. Order-book depth changes by the minute and thins out on large orders, so these numbers apply to small market orders at that moment.

Even with the spread added, a $1,000 market buy of SOL on an exchange came to roughly $1.12 before the rebate, against Schwab's $7.50.

What the price buys you at Schwab

The fee is not the only difference. Schwab's FAQ lists several features and limits that an exchange user should know before comparing:

• Funding. Cash reaches Schwab Crypto only from its linked Schwab brokerage account. Direct deposits from an external bank or a debit card are not accepted.
• Custody. Coins are held by Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, with Paxos Trust Company as sub-custodian, mostly in cold storage.
• Transfers out. Crypto transfers are being rolled out in phases. You must allowlist an address and wait 24 hours before sending to it. Withdrawals are capped at three per 24 hours and $5,000 per transfer, so the most you can send out by transfer in a day is $15,000 (3 × $5,000). Deposits can reach $50 million a month.
• Hours. Trading runs nearly 24/7, with a monthly maintenance window of up to two hours, usually on Saturday evenings.
• Who can open it. Accounts are available in every US state except New York and Louisiana, and not in US territories or any other country.

The $5,000-per-transfer cap is worth noting if you want to move coins to your own wallet or to another platform. A $50,000 position would take four 24-hour windows at three transfers each, or about 10 transfers in total.

Protections Schwab lists, and what they cover

Two protections on Schwab's pages are easy to misread, so it helps to quote them exactly.

• Cash. Schwab's FAQ says US dollar balances in a Schwab Crypto account are insured by the FDIC up to the standard maximum of $250,000, subject to conditions, and are not insured separately from other funds held at Charles Schwab Premier Bank.
• Unauthorized activity. The Schwab Security Guarantee, per the footnote on Schwab's crypto page, covers losses in Schwab accounts "due to unauthorized activity."

Neither protects you from a falling price. The same page says crypto is not FDIC insured and not SIPC protected, and that investing in it carries the risk of total loss. An exchange account works differently: what protects a balance there is the exchange's own reserves and security rules, which you check on its proof-of-reserves and security pages.

Schwab also caps how much you can put into each coin. Its FAQ says a maximum position limit applies to the cost basis (the total amount you have invested) in each asset, not to the current market value.

A weekly buyer's bill

The gap matters most to people who buy small amounts on a schedule. Take $200 of SOL every week for a year, 52 purchases and $10,400 in total.

The arithmetic for Schwab: $200 × 0.75% = $1.50; $1.50 × 52 = $78.00. For Bitget: $10.40 × (1 − 0.60) = $4.16. None of this includes selling, and none of it includes what it costs you to move dollars onto an exchange in the first place, which depends on your country and payment method.

Who this comparison is for

If you are a Schwab client in an eligible US state, the 0.75% buys convenience: crypto in the same login as your stocks, bank-held custody and a fee shown before you click. Across many trades that convenience gets expensive. Ten $1,000 buys a month come to $75 in Schwab fees, against $10 at a 0.10% exchange rate before any rebate.

If you live outside the US, Schwab Crypto is closed to you, and the question is which exchange you use for SOL, AVAX or LINK and what you pay there. Each exchange publishes its own list of countries it does not serve; check it in the exchange's terms before you open an account.

Our AVAX article from earlier today covers why AVAX moved on November 9. At 04:52 SGT, OKX quoted AVAX at $8.599, up 5.06% over 24 hours, while SOL was $86.81 (down 2.82%) and LINK $10.687 (up 0.30%).

What this means for you

1. Check the fee line on your last few trade confirmations. If it shows 0.75%, or a flat fee that works out higher than 0.10%, compare it with the table above.
2. Use limit orders where you can. On OKX the spot maker rate is 0.08% against 0.10% for takers.
3. Compare the net cost after any fee rebate. On Bitget the invite code nexu888 sets up a 60% rebate on trading fees, settled daily; on OKX the code nexu888 sets up a 20% rebate, settled hourly.
4. Confirm withdrawal limits before you move a large balance. Schwab allows three crypto transfers of up to $5,000 each per 24 hours.

The fee pages and terms for each venue are on our Bitget page, OKX page and Binance page.

Quick answers

How much does Schwab charge to buy crypto?

0.75% of the order value on every buy and every sell, with a $0.01 minimum, per Schwab's FAQ. A $1,000 trade costs $7.50.

Which coins can I trade on Schwab Crypto?

Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink, according to Schwab's crypto page as read on November 10.

Is Schwab Crypto available outside the US?

No. Schwab says accounts are not available in US territories or in any international jurisdiction, nor in New York or Louisiana.

Is 0.75% cheap?

It is 7.5 times the 0.10% standard spot taker fee on Bitget, OKX and Binance. Schwab quotes zero spread; the SOL spread on OKX was 0.0115% at 04:52 SGT, which does not close the gap.