The firm said it will add Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), and Chainlink (LINK) to the platform in the coming months, giving retail clients direct spot access to three of the best-known tokens outside BTC and ETH.

The announcement, dated August 27, 2026, is the first expansion of the product since Schwab Crypto began rolling out in May 2026. Schwab framed the picks as “established cryptocurrencies that align with client demand” and said it intends to add more digital assets over time.

What is changing

Schwab Crypto currently offers buy-and-sell access to bitcoin and ethereum. SOL, AVAX, and LINK will join that lineup for clients who have a Schwab Crypto account. The firm did not give a specific listing date, only that the tokens will become available “in the coming months.” It also reserved the right to delay, change, or withdraw support for an announced asset if market, regulatory, operational, or risk conditions change.

Joe Vietri, Head of Digital Assets at Charles Schwab, said the expansion is meant to give clients more ways to build a digital-asset allocation inside the same investing and banking relationship they already use:

“With this expansion, clients will have more choices to build a digital asset allocation alongside the investing and banking experience they know and trust at Schwab. These additions are consistent with our approach to provide clients with access to familiar cryptocurrencies backed by an ecosystem of education, tools, resources, and support to make informed decisions about how crypto might fit into their broader investing goals.”

Scale of the platform

Schwab Crypto sits on one of the largest retail brokerage bases in the United States. As of July 31, 2026, Charles Schwab reported about 39.9 million active brokerage accounts and $13.04 trillion in total client assets. Even modest uptake among that base would put SOL, AVAX, and LINK in front of a far larger traditional-finance audience than most crypto-native venues reach on their own.

The product is offered through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, with a separate crypto account linked to a Schwab brokerage account. Clients can view and trade crypto next to stocks, ETFs, and other holdings on Schwab.com, Schwab Mobile, and thinkorswim. Support is 24/7. The stated trading fee is 75 basis points (0.75%) of the dollar value of each trade, which Schwab describes as among the lowest in the industry. Educational content from the Schwab Center for Financial Research and Schwab Coaching is part of the offering.

Availability is limited. Schwab Crypto is offered in all U.S. states except New York and Louisiana, and it is not available in U.S. territories or internationally. Not every client will qualify. Cryptocurrencies held in these accounts are not securities, not SIPC-protected, not FDIC-insured, and are not deposits. Schwab’s own disclosures stress high volatility and the risk of total loss of principal.

Reporting around the original launch also noted that Paxos provides sub-custody and trade execution, while the bank subsidiary remains the product issuer. That structure keeps the offering inside Schwab’s regulated banking and brokerage stack rather than routing clients to a standalone crypto exchange.

Why these three tokens

The three additions sit in different parts of the crypto stack:

• Solana is a high-throughput Layer-1 used for trading, consumer apps, and payments.
• Avalanche is a Layer-1 known for customizable subnets and institutional/enterprise experiments.
• Chainlink is the leading oracle network that feeds off-chain data into smart contracts.

Schwab did not publish a formal selection rubric beyond client demand and “established” status. The choice is still notable: after years of TradFi products clustering around BTC and ETH (spot ETFs, futures, and now brokerage spot), a major U.S. retail broker is treating a short list of altcoins as suitable for the same account as equities and cash.

A separate advisor-channel crypto service—spot trading, transfers, and custody for RIAs—has been described as targeted for mid-2027. This week’s announcement is a retail expansion first. Schwab’s Advisor Services business held on the order of $5.7 trillion in client assets at mid-year, so a later RIA rollout would be a second, larger distribution event.

Market and industry context

Crypto markets treated the news as a liquidity and legitimacy signal. Coverage immediately after the release pointed to gains in SOL, LINK, and AVAX as traders priced in broader U.S. retail access. Those moves do not guarantee lasting demand; they do show how tightly some altcoin prices still react to regulated distribution.

The listing also fits a wider 2025–2026 pattern: large brokers and banks adding spot crypto inside existing apps instead of sending clients off-platform. Schwab’s earlier 2026 launch of 24/7 crypto futures (including Solana and XRP on thinkorswim) already showed the firm was willing to offer more than BTC/ETH in derivatives. Spot listings for SOL, AVAX, and LINK close that gap for cash-market exposure.

For the tokens themselves, the practical effects—if the rollout is completed as planned—are:

1. Easier on-ramps for investors who already keep cash and securities at Schwab and will not open a Coinbase, Kraken, or self-custody wallet.
2. Potential incremental liquidity if even a small share of Schwab’s tens of millions of accounts allocates to the three assets.
3. A precedent for other large U.S. brokers considering a short list of “established” alts rather than remaining BTC/ETH-only.

What Schwab has not confirmed matters as much as what it has. There is no public timeline beyond “coming months,” no confirmation that all three tokens will go live together, and no detail yet on staking, on-chain transfers, order types, or whether clients can move SOL, AVAX, or LINK off the platform. Those product features will determine whether Schwab Crypto is a simple buy-and-hold wrapper or a fuller trading venue.

What to watch next

The next checkpoints are operational, not rhetorical:

• Exact listing dates for each token
• Whether the three assets launch together or in stages
• Any change in fees, state availability, or eligibility
• Whether Schwab names a next wave of assets after SOL, AVAX, and LINK
• Progress toward the mid-2027 advisor-channel product

Until those dates land, the story is still a plan, not a live market. Schwab has already shown it will add assets only after it is ready to support them inside its bank-brokerage stack. That caution is why the May BTC/ETH launch was limited—and why this second wave, if it arrives on schedule, will be read as a real step toward mainstream altcoin access rather than another press-release listing.

Bottom line: One of the largest U.S. brokerages is opening its crypto product to Solana, Avalanche, and Chainlink for tens of millions of existing accounts. The tokens are not live yet. When they are, retail access and potential liquidity for three of crypto’s most widely held non-BTC/ETH assets will look different than they did in May.