Charles Schwab Launches Direct Crypto Trading as Revenue Hits $7.1B

Financial giant Charles Schwab has posted its biggest quarter ever, bringing in a record 7.1 billion dollars in revenue. The broker beat Wall Street forecasts with an adjusted profit of 1.62 dollars per share, driven by a massive surge in trading activity and growing margin balances. Along with the stellar earnings report, Schwab announced it is finally launching direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for retail clients.

The move into direct crypto trading is a major shift for the firm. Previously, Schwab clients could only trade crypto through futures and exchange traded funds. Now, users can buy and sell BTC and ETH directly on the platform. Schwab is entering the spot crypto market at an interesting time, with Bitcoin trading around 66,690 dollars and Ethereum near 1,927 dollars.

Schwab is admittedly late to the crypto party, as rivals like Robinhood, Fidelity, and Interactive Brokers have offered direct trading for years. To attract users, Schwab is also rolling out a new artificial intelligence tool called Portfolio Insights to summarize daily account moves, with plans to add access to prediction markets in the coming months.

Despite the blockbuster earnings and the new crypto features, Schwab stock remained relatively flat, trading near 102.91 dollars. Investors likely priced in the strong earnings ahead of time, leaving the market to watch whether these new crypto and tech additions will drive the company's next phase of growth.