U.S. financial firm Charles Schwab has started direct trading of bitcoin and ether across about 40 million securities accounts.

On Aug. 13 local time, blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that Charles Schwab customers can now buy and sell the two cryptocurrencies directly on the same platform they used to trade stocks and bonds.

The service was launched as a product called Schwab Crypto. It is available in 48 U.S. states, excluding New York and Louisiana. The trading fee is 0.75 percent, and Charles Schwab Premier Bank and Paxos will run operations.

The launch extends Schwab's planned expansion of spot cryptocurrency trading. In its second-quarter earnings release, Schwab said the launch timeline was proceeding as planned. In May, it also made official that it would expand its cryptocurrency business to meet customer demand. Forbes put the number of eligible accounts at about 40 million, up from 39.1 million in May when the service applied.

Joe Vietri (조 비에트리), head of digital assets at Charles Schwab, said the company aims to become the platform most preferred by retail investors seeking to add digital assets to their portfolios. He said the company has advantages in service, education and research when trading cryptocurrencies alongside other investment assets.

Schwab is maintaining risk warnings separately from expanding its product lineup. In a report released in April, Schwab stated that even if bitcoin or ether accounts for 1 to 3 percent, it can have an outsized impact on an entire portfolio. It also said the two assets have fallen more than 70 percent in past cycles and noted there is no single right answer for allocation.

Market conditions are also supporting Schwab's move. Schwab said customers already hold about 20 percent of total cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs). On Wall Street, Morgan Stanley has started cryptocurrency trading on its E-Trade platform, and Goldman Sachs has applied for a bitcoin premium income exchange-traded fund (ETF).

On the regulatory front, the U.S. Congress is pushing the Clarity bill. The bill would divide oversight authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and establish federal rules for tokens, stablecoins and decentralised finance (DeFi). In this context, Schwab's expansion of direct trading shows competition among major U.S. financial firms to incorporate cryptocurrencies is widening further.