Wall Street Is Opening the Altcoin Floodgates — Will Investors Follow?

Wall Street’s retail brokerages are putting altcoins in front of millions more investors. Whether those investors buy is the real question.
Brokerages including Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, and Interactive Brokers—collectively covering 54 million user accounts—are bringing tokens such as Solana (SOL), XRP, Avalanche (AVAX), and Chainlink (LINK) onto the platforms clients already use to trade stocks and funds. The expansion has the potential to dramatically broaden the crypto market’s buyer base.
Schwab is the latest to join the fray. The firmsaid on Aug. 27 that clients will be able to trade SOL, AVAX, and LINK “in the coming months,” adding to its existing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) offerings.

Schwab is the latest large retail brokerage to offer altcoin trading

And Schwab is in good company. E*TRADE launched direct trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in July, whileInteractive Brokers has started offering 20 cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Avalanche, and Chainlink.
“Major brokerage access for SOL, AVAX and LINK is a meaningful step,” crypto analyst Scott Melkerwrote on X. “This expands the addressable buyer base beyond crypto-native platforms.”
Notably, while SOL, LINK, and AVAX respectively rose 13%, 6%, and 4% after the Schwab announcement, most of those gains faded by Sept.1.

Altcoins Move Into the Main Brokerage Account

Crucially, the rollouts place altcoins on platforms traditional investors already trust.

AMorgan Stanley survey found that an established company was the leading consideration when investors chose where to trade crypto, ahead of integrated portfolio views, fees, pricing, and customer service.

Investors favor trusted platforms for buying crypto

Clients can buy selected altcoins without having to open and fund a separate crypto exchange account. That simplifies trading while keeping more of their money and activity inside Schwab, E*TRADE, and Interactive Brokers.

“Our clients want the flexibility to diversify into crypto-assets while maintaining the tools, pricing, and trust they rely on,” Interactive Brokers CEO Milan Galiksaid in March.

More mature crypto infrastructure and clearer regulation are making expansion easier.

Brokerages can add crypto without building exchanges from scratch. Infrastructure providers such as Zerohash and Paxos handle trading and custody. Meanwhile, a March jointSEC-CFTC interpretation said “most crypto assets are not themselves securities,” reducing uncertainty around product launches.

Solana and XRP Have Already Found Buyers

Solana and XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have already found buyers through ordinary brokerage accounts. However, demand has been uneven across altcoins, with LINK and AVAX dramatically lagging SOL and XRP.
US spot XRP ETFs attracted more than $1.4 billion within six weeks of their November 2025 launch and $1.68 billion through Sept. 1. Bloomberg Intelligence said retail investors likely comprised the majority of buyers.
“This is really impressive given these launched into a brutal 45% drawdown,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunaswrote on X.

XRP ETFs clocked strong performance post-launch

US spot SOL ETFs recorded $1.31 billion in cumulative net inflows through Sept. 1. That included $449.3 million in seed capital, meaning about $862 million was added after trading began.
Demand for LINK and AVAX has been weaker. The first US ETFs for both launched in January. By Aug. 31, LINK ETFs had attracted $146.4 million in net inflows, while the three AVAX funds held $36.7 million in combined assets.
“Whether this was just a slow start or a reality check for other altcoin ETFs remained to be seen,” AMBCrypto analyst Benjamin Njiriwrote.

Related Article:Wintermute Data Shows Institutional Grip Tightening on Altcoin Market

Altcoin Demand Remains Concentrated

The uneven fund flows reflect a broader market still dominated by Bitcoin.

CoinMarketCap’sAltcoin Season Index stood at 26 out of 100 on Sept. 1, placing the market firmly in Bitcoin Season.

Schwab’s rollout will widen direct access to LINK and AVAX, though the tokens are not yet available on its platform.

For now, broader access has not produced broader altcoin demand.

“In the end, investors will decide which products make sense and which don’t,” NovaDius Wealth Management President Nate Geracitold CoinDesk.
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Source: coinmarketcap.com