The historical record demonstrates that when innovation strikes a particular industry, there are first responders or leaders, and then there are the “wait-and-see” types that drag their feet, often to their own downfall, and try their best to play catch up for years to come. When the names of Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, e*Trade, and Pershing appear in the crypto press, advocates of all things crypto are happy that the “Big Boys” are finally recognizing the potential of the industry, but at the same time, they are curious that one major player is absent – Charles Schwab. Their CEO has been dismissive of cryptos.
To observers of the broad Fintech industry, which does include retail trading platforms and exchanges, Charles Schwab seems pleased to be an anomaly or to suffer from the same “malaise” that has infected the folks over at Apple Corporation (NASDAQ:AAPL), which also appears to be deliberately avoiding the crypto revolution. Both Apple and Charles Schwab are enormous enterprises. Apple’s market cap is just below $1 trillion, and Schwab has over $3.2 trillion in assets under management. One could easily argue that such large entities must tread softly before making any large decisions in the marketplace.
The reporters at CryptoNews recently revealed that:
According to the statement released by Walt Bettinger, the notable CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation, cryptocurrencies are speculative and not crucial for his RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) network. Now, this statement of the genius spearhead has created a lot of buzz in the market.
As for reasons why this major CEO came out against even exploring the possibility of cryptos has led industry observers to conclude that Charles Schwab would rather lag current trends and then try to play catch up further down the road.
Reporters then sought the opinion of Will Trout, the senior analyst for Celent, a wealth management consultancy firm, who was quick to say:
In the short to medium term, [Schwab’s] missing an opportunity. Schwab will be forced to move into space at some point, although most likely in a small way, custody of client assets or a stake in an exchange.
When sought for comment, a spokesperson for Charles Schwab, Rob Farmer, the managing director for corporate communications, explained:
Direct trading of cryptocurrencies just isn’t on the Schwab radar at this time.
As for Bettinger’s disparaging crypto remarks, Farmer added:
Let’s answer that question out in the future a little bit.
When queried in the past, Schwab representatives have generally complained that the crypto world consisted of very small-capitalized programs, nothing significant enough for them to waste their time with, or at least that general response was the purported logic behind their unwillingness to venture into the crypto space.
Such protestations, however, do not make sense upon further consideration. Charles Schwab is more than happy to sell equities for such large public entities as IBM and Intel, which sport market caps roughly between $125 and $230 billion, and these “significant” companies are far and away on the high side of offerings supported by Charles Schwab. And then we have Bitcoin with a market cap of roughly $185 billion, or when it tipped $13,000, over $230 billion. Are these figures insignificant? Sounds like Charles Schwab is making up excuses, as it goes, or at least trying to cover for its CEO, who appears to be out of touch with investment trends and what his customers might want in the investment marketplace.