Incoming CEO Rick Wurster said the firm is preparing for that “eventuality.”
A sure sign that crypto investing is becoming increasingly mainstream is the news this week that one of the largest brokerage firms in the U.S., Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) is likely to offer spot crypto trading in the new regulatory environment.
The firm made no official announcement, but the incoming CEO, Rick Wurster, confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday that the firm is headed in that direction.
“I think we will get into spot crypto when the regulatory environment changes, and we do anticipate that it will change — and we’re getting ready for that eventuality,” Wurster, the current president of the company who is set to take over as CEO on January 1, told Bloomberg.
Missing the boat?
Schwab currently does offer crypto investing on its platform through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Bitcoin futures, and closed-end funds, and even spot Bitcoin and Ethereum investing through ETFs. But it does not offer spot crypto investing, besides the ETFs, that would allow investors to directly invest in various cryptocurrencies.
On this front, a change would allow Schwab to better compete against newer brokerages, like Robinhood, which allows spot crypto investing.
“It’s an interesting asset class and people have really gravitated toward it,” Wurster told Bloomberg, which interviewed him at the Schwab Impact Conference in San Francisco, Thursday.
“We never like to judge what people want to invest in,” Wurster added. “People on our platform we think are very thoughtful investors. Very sharp. They make decisions about what they want to invest in, and crypto has certainly caught many’s attention. And they have made a lot of money doing it.”
Wurster himself has not invested in crypto, “and now I feel silly,” he quipped, given that the prices have been rising.
To that point, the price of Bitcoin went over $99,000 on Friday and is up 124% year-to-date (YTD).
“We encourage our investors to invest in what matters for them,” Wurster said. “I’ve talked to a lot of our investors who tell me I’m completely missing the boat, and they tell me all the great things about crypto and you know what, they’ve been right not me.”
A “disruptive” force?
Investors should expect to hear more about this from Wurster over the coming weeks and months as he takes over for outgoing CEO Walt Bettinger on January 1.
But in some ways, Schwab has been waiting for the regulatory environment to change for some time. Bettinger addressed the topic more than three years ago on the first quarter of 2021 earnings call with analysts.
“We would like to see more regulatory clarity,” Bettinger said back in 2021 on the earnings call, as The Street reported. “And if and when that comes, you should expect Schwab to be a player in that space in the same way it has been a player in other investment opportunities across the spectrum.”
That time has come, as President-Elect Donald Trump has been a champion for crypto, and current SEC chair Gary Gensler, who has not been viewed as pro-crypto by the industry, announced this week that he is stepping down on January 20.
“If Charles Schwab, the company, decides to participate in the crypto market, we will be highly competitive, we will be disruptive, and we will be client-oriented,” Bettinger said back in April of 2021.
Stay tuned.
