Schwab (Charles Schwab) is different from platforms like Coinbase and Robinhood—it's a more old-school and conservative traditional brokerage in the U.S. This time, they announced plans to gradually roll out the ability for their nearly 40 million active client accounts to trade spot Bitcoin and Ethereum. This is a clear signal: traditional old money is starting to show demand for crypto assets like BTC and ETH. It's not that Schwab suddenly fell in love with crypto; it's mainly driven by customer demand. Many clients already manage stocks, bonds, ETFs, and retirement accounts through Schwab, and now they want to buy BTC and ETH directly within the same app. No need to go through the hassle of opening accounts on Coinbase, transferring funds, or managing private keys—this is true one-stop investing. Schwab clients collectively manage about $12 trillion in assets, with the customer base primarily consisting of middle-aged and older long-term investors. Many of them have lived through the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic crash, yet they continue to stick to dollar-cost averaging. This money is typically pretty "boring": they prefer long-term holding, avoid leveraging, and rarely chase market highs or panic sell. Now, this traditional, massive "old money" is starting to slowly and steadily buy BTC/ETH. For Schwab, this move helps them retain clients (preventing funds from flowing to competitors) and also allows them to earn a portion of transaction fees (set at 0.75%).