The crypto trading space is being entered by major financial institutions, including Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, signaling their intent to engage with digital assets.
Within the past 48 hours, announcements were made by Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley—three prominent financial institutions providing banking and investment services—regarding their intentions to introduce crypto trading services to their clients.
On May 1, it was stated by Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster during an appearance on Yahoo Finance’s podcast that spot crypto trading would be introduced by the institution within the next 12 months, starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum. These offerings are set to be incorporated into Schwab’s “thinkorswim” platform, which serves as the bank’s trading-oriented product suite.
During the Token2049 event held in Dubai this week, an announcement was made by Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs’ head of digital assets, expressing the firm’s intention to engage in tokenized treasury and money market fund trading, along with plans to enter the lending space.
According to a Bloomberg report released yesterday, plans have also been made by Morgan Stanley to begin providing crypto services through its investment brokerage division, E-Trade, starting in 2026. These initiatives would represent the traditional broker’s initial entry into direct spot crypto trading, expanding beyond its existing offerings, which are currently limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs and futures trading.
Since the introduction of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in the United States, institutional adoption of crypto has been significantly accelerated, and this pace has further intensified following the inauguration of a U.S. presidential administration openly supportive of cryptocurrency. Progress has been observed on both regulatory and commercial fronts, as leading entities within the country move swiftly to establish dominance in the market.
During the first quarter alone, ten significant crypto and DeFi cases were dismissed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the White House hosted its inaugural official Crypto Summit, and the surge in institutional adoption of tokenized treasuries and bonds has ignited rapid growth in the real-world assets (RWA) sector.
