Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Charles Schwab CEO eyes April 2026 window for debut of spot Bitcoin trading, a new report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warns that crypto and stablecoins may destabilize finance and widen inequality, and Lyn Alden shares her current outlook on Bitcoin.

*Charles Schwab CEO hints spot BTC trading may come in April 2026*

Charles Schwab CEO Rick Wurster said the financial services company is looking at a potential April 2026 target to rollout spot Bitcoin trading to its clients.

According to RIABiz, the CEO said that crypto was attracting traffic to the financial service company's crypto-focused website.

70% of that traffic was not Schwab clients and represented potentially new prospects, Wurster said. The Schwab CEO gave a timeline for the rollout:

“Our expectation is that with the changing regulatory environment, we are hopeful and likely to be able to launch direct spot crypto. Our goal is to do that in the next 12 months."

The move comes at a time when many traditional financial institutions are increasingly adopting crypto or offering digital asset products to their clients.

*Crypto, DeFi may widen wealth gap, destabilize finance: BIS report*

The growing adoption of cryptocurrencies may pose risks to the traditional financial system and exacerbate wealth inequality, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

In an April 15 report, the BIS warned that the number of investors and amount of capital in crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) have “reached a critical mass,” with investor protection becoming a “significant concern for regulators.”

The size of the crypto market signals that authorities should be worried about the “stability of crypto over and above the role it may have for TradFi and the real economy,” the report states, highlighting the role of stablecoins, which the BIS said have “become the means through which participants transfer value within crypto.”

BIS report on crypto and DeFi’s functions and financial stability implications. Source: BIS

The report calls for targeted stablecoin regulation on stability and reserve asset requirements that will guarantee the redemption of stablecoins for US dollars during “stressed market conditions.”

*Lyn Alden lowers Bitcoin forecast after “tariff kerfuffle,” eyes liquidity*

Macroeconomist Lyn Alden expects Bitcoin to finish 2025 higher than its current price of around $85,000, though she says it would have been much higher if not for US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement in February.

“Before all this tariff kerfuffle, I would have had a higher price target,” Alden told Natalie Brunell on the April 17 episode of Coin Stories. “My guess is that we end up higher at the end of the year than we are now, at least,” she added.

Lyn Alden spoke to Coin Stories’ host Natalie Brunell on April 17. Source: Natalie Brunell

However, she said that a “massive liquidity unlock” could be the catalyst needed for Bitcoin to reach more optimistic targets, similar to those before the tariffs were introduced.

For example, if the US bond market “broke” and the US Federal Reserve had to step in with measures like yield curve control or heavy quantitative easing (QE), Alden explained.