With the price of Bitcoin once again rising—having recently surpassed the $30,000 mark for the first time since June 2022—it is a good time to survey the crypto offerings and resources that leading brokerage firms are providing clients. Should the wider cryptocurrency market continue to rise, brokerages with the most robust crypto offerings could reap considerable rewards (and, possibly, a lot of regulatory headaches).
In February, CI’s brokerage team published a Cryptocurrency Offerings and Resources report (subscription required) that examined the 20 firms in our Broker coverage group. Most firms in the coverage set maintain a neutral or even negative view on cryptocurrencies that is underpinned to a large extent by the lack of regulatory oversight. (CI also recently published a report on DeFi and its potential affect on the financial services industry over the next decade.)
Two firms—Robinhood and Fidelity—offer direct cryptocurrency trading. A few firms offer almost no resources or capabilities, while most firms provide indirect access through three distinct investment vehicles: OTC trusts, crypto ETFs and industry ETFs that focus on crypto, blockchain or general digital assets firms.
Robinhood—which began offering direct crypto trading way back in 2018—features the most robust crypto offerings, providing direct trading access to 18 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH) and other leading coins such as Avalanche ($AVAX), Cardano ($ADA) and Solana ($SOL). In addition, it allows clients to trade the two most popular meme coins: Dogecoin ($DOGE) and Shiba Inu ($SHIB). Crypto holdings appear in a dedicated section within the secure site dashboard and feature a unique quote interface that includes a dark-mode background with chart lines that emit a slight neon glow. Robinhood also recently introduced a non-custodial crypto wallet.
Fidelity Crypto—the firm’s crypto trading platform, which opened for early access in November 2022—is in its infancy. It currently offers Bitcoin and Ethereum, though site material indicates that the firm may expand to other cryptocurrencies in the future (possibly depending on what the SEC does with crypto moving forward). Clients need a unique Fidelity Crypto account to trade cryptocurrency, though crypto transactions are conducted using the firm’s standard trade ticket.
Most coverage set firms provide some array of educational material. Charles Schwab stands out for providing a wealth of resources, including articles, podcasts, videos and market commentary. The public site Learn center includes a Cryptocurrency page that features much of the firm’s educational content, including a recent Investing Basics: Bitcoin and Blockchain video, which explains blockchain ledgers and how cryptocurrencies use them. Other resources, such as the Cryptocurrencies: How You Could Invest in Them articles explain indirect crypto investments. The firm occasionally posts about cryptocurrency on social media to promote public site content, such as its tweet linking to the Can You Invest in Crypto without Buying Crypto Directly? podcast.
For more information on the brokerage industry’s cryptocurrency offerings as well as our expectations regarding further industry adoption of crypto check out our Broker research services. And for more research into the latest trends across the financial services industry, check out our Insights page.