U.S. brokerage Charles Schwab has expanded direct trading for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) to all retail clients who meet U.S. eligibility requirements.

CoinPost, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 17 that Schwab opened spot trading for BTC and ETH on Schwab Crypto to its full customer base after offering the service to some clients in May.

The trading fee is 0.75 percent of the transaction amount per order. Order sizes range from $1 to $2 million. Clients outside the United States cannot use the service.

Schwab sees cryptocurrency trading as a new revenue source for its existing brokerage business. Chief Executive Rick Wurster (릭 워스터) said at a business briefing the same day that cryptocurrencies and prediction markets are areas to expand trading revenue. He said customer trading demand can be converted into new revenue.

With the expansion, Schwab will compete in the cryptocurrency trading market with Robinhood, Coinbase and Fidelity, among others. Schwab's 0.75 percent trading fee is lower than Fidelity's 1 percent but higher than the 0.50 percent charged by E-Trade, a unit of Morgan Stanley.

Schwab also plans to gradually expand the number of tokens it supports. It plans to add Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink (LINK) to its tradable assets by year-end. Wurster said the company is also developing a feature that would allow clients to transfer cryptocurrencies held externally into Schwab accounts.

Schwab's large customer base is also drawing attention. Company data show total client assets of about $13.33 trillion and 40.3 million active brokerage accounts. Third-quarter net revenue rose 17 percent from a year earlier to $7.2 billion, a record high.

The company's expansion of its cryptocurrency business is seen as a move to diversify trading revenue by using its existing client base. With rivals already offering similar services, a key question is whether Schwab can secure competitiveness in fees and ease of use and translate that into actual asset inflows and higher trading volume.