---
type: source
title: "Charles Schwab spot BTC/ETH H1 2026; SBI Holdings Solana settlement; Visa South Korea stablecoins"
author: "Decrypt / DL News / CoinDesk Staff"
url: https://decrypt.co/news/schwab-bitcoin-ethereum-spot-trading-h1-2026
date: 2026-04-03
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-04-07
priority: medium
tags: [institutional-adoption, schwab, stablecoins, visa, south-korea, solana, sbi-holdings, settlement]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

**Charles Schwab spot BTC/ETH (Decrypt April 3):**
Schwab is preparing to launch direct spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum in H1 2026. Schwab manages approximately $8.5 trillion in assets — the largest US brokerage by AUM. Offering spot crypto alongside traditional equities signals that crypto has passed the institutional legitimacy threshold at the retail distribution layer.

**SBI Holdings / B2C2 on Solana (SolanaFloor):**
B2C2, a major institutional crypto trading desk owned by SBI Holdings, selected Solana as its primary stablecoin settlement layer. SBI's leadership stated: "Solana has earned its place as fundamental financial infrastructure." B2C2 processes significant institutional stablecoin volume.

**Visa South Korea stablecoin pilot (DL News April 5):**
Visa executives visited South Korean banks, identifying the country as "the optimal place to experiment with stablecoins" outside the US, citing 17 million crypto investors and strong AI adoption. South Korean domestic financial officials expressed frustration that "tokenisation remains completely blocked" despite being an "inevitable global trend." Visa is moving into stablecoin settlement infrastructure to complement its card network.

**Q1 2026 crypto VC activity (DL News April 4):**
Crypto startups raised $5 billion in Q1 2026. Top 10 funding rounds not detailed in available sources. The strong VC quarter reinforces that institutional capital is flowing into crypto infrastructure despite market volatility.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** Three simultaneous institutional adoption signals in one week: Schwab (retail distribution at $8.5T AUM), SBI/B2C2 (institutional settlement on Solana), Visa (stablecoin infrastructure for international payments). These are not marginal crypto-native institutions — these are dominant players in traditional finance choosing crypto rails. The "attractor state" thesis is receiving its strongest institutional confirmation to date.

**What surprised me:** Visa's timing is striking. The Circle/USDC freeze controversy (same week as Drift hack) would seem to create headwinds for stablecoin institutional adoption. Instead, Visa is accelerating into stablecoins. This suggests large institutions view USDC's freeze capability as a feature (regulatory compliance tool) rather than a bug — opposite of the DeFi-native reading.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Specific stablecoin Schwab plans to support (USDC? USDT? their own?). The stablecoin they choose will signal their regulatory alignment preference.

**KB connections:**
- [[Internet finance is an industry transition from traditional finance where the attractor state replaces intermediaries with programmable coordination and market-tested governance]] — Schwab, SBI, Visa are evidence that the attractor state is pulling incumbents toward crypto rails faster than expected
- [[Proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] — Schwab and Visa choosing crypto rails rather than resisting suggests proxy inertia has a shorter shelf life than the claim predicts for this cycle

**Extraction hints:**
- Enrichment on attractor state: Q1 2026 simultaneous institutional moves (Schwab spot, SBI settlement, Visa stablecoin) represent a threshold crossing — the attractor state is now pulling incumbents rather than just crypto-native entrants
- Note the Visa/USDC interpretive divergence: DeFi-native view (Circle freeze capability = trust vulnerability) vs. institutional view (Circle freeze capability = regulatory compliance tool) — both readings of the same technical fact

**Context:** This cluster of institutional adoption news arrives during the same week as the Drift hack, Polymarket self-censorship, and Kalshi Nevada ban. The simultaneity is informative: institutional adoption is accelerating independently of regulatory headwinds at the product layer. The regulation battles are being fought at the product/governance layer; the infrastructure adoption is proceeding at the settlement/custody layer.

## Curator Notes
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[Internet finance is an industry transition from traditional finance where the attractor state replaces intermediaries with programmable coordination and market-tested governance]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Schwab + SBI + Visa simultaneous institutional moves represent strongest single-week evidence for attractor state thesis — incumbents are adopting crypto rails on the settlement layer while regulatory battles continue at the product layer
EXTRACTION HINT: The infrastructure vs. product layer distinction is the key framing — institutional adoption of crypto settlement (Schwab, SBI, Visa) is accelerating independently of prediction market and governance regulatory battles
