Crypto-friendly banks and apps in the US

SoFi is the clearest answer: it is the only national bank we found that sells crypto to ordinary customers straight from a checking or savings account. Schwab and PNC sell crypto to narrower groups. The other big banks don't sell crypto, but none of those we checked publishes a block on payments to exchanges. Credit cards are where you'll notice it: most of them treat crypto bought on a card as a cash advance.

"No block found" means the bank's own pages and agreements didn't mention one, not that every payment goes through. Exchanges and card networks decide a lot too. Relay, a business-banking app, shows the other side: it says its partner Thread Bank prohibits crypto activity, so transfers to exchanges are blocked before they settle. If you bank with an app rather than a bank, check its partner bank's terms.

At SoFi and Schwab among banks (PNC only for Private Bank clients), and in several brokers and money apps that aren't banks. Posted fees vary widely: E*TRADE charges 0.50% with no added spread, small PayPal buys cost 2.20% plus a spread, and Cash App charges no fee on bitcoin buys of $2,000 or more. Only some of them let you move coins to your own wallet.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Truist and Ally Invest offer crypto exposure through ETFs or crypto-related funds and stocks instead. Those are regulated securities in a brokerage account, so you never hold the coins.

It depends on how you bank. SoFi is simpler: you buy from the money already in SoFi checking or savings, and you can choose from dozens of coins. Its fee is built into the price SoFi shows you. It runs from 1.90% per trade if you trade under $1,000 a month down to 0.90% from $10,000, and orders entered as a crypto amount can add a spread of up to 0.10%. SoFi also lets you send crypto to outside wallets, up to $10,000 a day.

Schwab is cheaper per trade at 0.75%, but it only sells Bitcoin and Ether and isn't available in New York or Louisiana. You fund it only from a linked Schwab brokerage account, not by debit card or from another bank. Schwab holds the coins at Charles Schwab Premier Bank, with Paxos as sub-custodian, and is rolling out withdrawals to outside wallets with a $5,000 limit per transfer.

With a credit card, it usually costs you. Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, Discover and PNC card agreements treat crypto purchases as cash advances. That typically means a fee of about 5% (at Chase and Citi, $10 or 5%, whichever is greater) and interest from the day of purchase, and Chase also excludes them from rewards. Capital One and U.S. Bank agreements don't name crypto, so how the purchase is coded matters.

Debit cards are less restricted. None of the bank pages we checked publishes a debit card ban on crypto merchants; acceptance mostly depends on the exchange and the card network. The exceptions we found are business accounts at Thread Bank through Relay, where debit card crypto purchases are declined, and Schwab Crypto, which can't be funded by debit card at all.

No. FDIC deposit insurance covers deposits such as checking and savings, and only pays out if an insured bank fails. The FDIC says it doesn't apply to crypto assets and doesn't protect against the failure of non-bank companies, including exchanges, brokers, wallet providers and neobanks. SIPC doesn't protect crypto that isn't a security, either.

Dollars are different. Schwab, for example, says crypto in Schwab Crypto is not FDIC insured or SIPC protected. The cash balance sits in deposit accounts at Charles Schwab Premier Bank and is insured on a pass-through basis up to $250,000, combined with your other deposits at that bank. SoFi says the same of its crypto: not insured by the FDIC or SIPC.

Regulators changed course in 2025. In March the OCC confirmed that national banks can offer crypto custody without first getting supervisory approval, and the FDIC said the banks it supervises no longer need prior approval for permissible crypto activities. The Federal Reserve withdrew its own crypto guidance in April. In May the OCC confirmed that national banks can buy and sell crypto held in custody at a customer's direction and outsource that work to third parties.

Banks followed. SoFi launched consumer crypto trading on November 11, 2025, PNC added bitcoin for Private Bank clients in December 2025, and Schwab began rolling out spot trading in May 2026. In December 2025 the OCC conditionally approved national trust bank charters or conversions for five crypto firms, including Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.

Increasingly, yes. Brokers, including banks and apps that sell crypto, file Form 1099-DA with gross proceeds for sales from January 1, 2025, and add cost basis for coins bought from January 1, 2026. The IRS treats crypto as property, so selling it, swapping it or spending it is a taxable disposal, and you must report every gain or loss whether or not you get a form. Our US exchanges guide covers the 2026 rates.