Bitcoin Tops $80,000 as Charles Schwab Adds Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to Its Crypto Platform

Bitcoin is back above the $80,000 mark, and Wall Street just gave the broader crypto market another reason to keep buying. On Thursday, August 27, Charles Schwab confirmed it will add Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink (LINK) to its Schwab Crypto platform, deepening one of the largest brokerages in the country's push into digital assets just as bitcoin extends its August rebound.

Bitcoin Breaks Back Above $80,000 on Sustained ETF Demand

Bitcoin settled at $80,258 on Thursday, a 1.56% daily gain that pushed the largest cryptocurrency back above the psychologically important $80,000 level for the first time since May. The move extended a late-August rebound built on steady demand for US spot bitcoin ETFs, which recorded a ninth consecutive day of net inflows — $242.3 million on August 27 alone, and roughly $3.0 billion across the full streak, according to data from Farside Investors.

The rally has been broad-based rather than driven purely by leverage. Derivatives data shows short liquidations have outpaced long liquidations in recent sessions, futures open interest has held steady to slightly lower, and funding rates remain positive but moderate — a combination that suggests genuine spot buying rather than a purely speculative squeeze. Sentiment has followed the price: the Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose to 70, putting the market back in "Greed" territory for the first time since late 2024.

Ether lagged the move, edging up just 0.17% to around $2,510, while XRP added 2.15% to reach $1.453. The bigger standout, however, came from Solana — and that rally was closely tied to the second major story of the day.

Charles Schwab Deepens Its Crypto Push With Three New Tokens

Charles Schwab announced plans to expand its Schwab Crypto platform beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum by adding Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink "in the coming months." The brokerage, which serves 39.9 million active accounts holding roughly $13.04 trillion in client assets as of July 31, said the additions reflect its strategy to "thoughtfully expand" its digital asset offering with established tokens that align with client demand.

Schwab Crypto launched in May 2026 with direct spot trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum, charging a flat 0.75% fee on the dollar value of each trade. The service runs through Charles Schwab Premier Bank, with Paxos providing sub-custody and trade execution. Joe Vietri, Schwab's head of digital assets, said the expansion gives clients more ways to build a digital asset allocation without leaving Schwab's existing banking and investing ecosystem.

The three new tokens represent a shift beyond bitcoin's store-of-value narrative and ether's smart-contract dominance: Solana is widely used for high-throughput decentralized applications and payments, Avalanche focuses on scalable blockchain infrastructure, and Chainlink supplies the oracle infrastructure that connects blockchains to real-world data. Schwab said it plans to keep adding cryptocurrencies over time, though it has not detailed which assets or a timeline beyond this round. The brokerage already offers 24/7 crypto futures trading on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and XRP through its thinkorswim platform, launched in June.

Altcoins Ride the News as Sentiment Turns to Greed

The market reaction to Schwab's announcement was immediate. Solana jumped 6.89% to $109.21, its strongest one-day move in months, as traders priced in the prospect of new institutional distribution through one of the country's largest brokerages. Schwab's own account for the token highlighted the scale of the opportunity: direct SOL access for nearly 40 million brokerage accounts sitting on more than $13 trillion in combined client assets.

Schwab's move also lands against a broader macro backdrop that has been supportive of crypto prices. A weaker dollar and the Treasury's decision to expand its buyback of longer-dated bonds have improved the outlook for scarce assets more broadly, adding another tailwind alongside the steady ETF inflows.

What It Means for US Investors

Taken together, the two stories point in the same direction: traditional finance's on-ramps into crypto are widening at the same time institutional demand for bitcoin itself is strengthening. For a brokerage the size of Schwab, adding SOL, AVAX and LINK doesn't just give existing clients three more tickers to trade — it signals that mainstream finance now views a broader set of digital assets as investable, established products rather than speculative fringe bets.

For the market, the key questions going forward are whether the ETF inflow streak holds, whether $80,000 becomes durable support for bitcoin rather than short-lived resistance, and whether Schwab's rollout timeline and any further token additions keep pulling in new capital from its tens of millions of existing brokerage clients.