{"id":52337,"date":"2025-10-11T14:31:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T14:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=52337"},"modified":"2025-10-11T14:31:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T14:31:55","slug":"bitcoin-is-not-an-asset-class-says-one-of-uks-largest-retail-investment-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=52337","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bitcoin Is Not an Asset Class,\u2019 Says One of UK\u2019s Largest Retail Investment Platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK\u2019s largest retail investment platforms, has warned that bitcoin should not be treated as a core part of investment portfolios \u2014 even as it prepares to offer crypto products to clients for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hl.co.uk\/investment-services\/crypto-statement\">statement<\/a> published on its website, the Bristol-based firm said bitcoin, despite its long-term price gains, \u201cis not an asset class\u201d and lacks the intrinsic characteristics that would justify including it in a portfolio for growth or income. <\/p>\n<p>Hargreaves Lansdown argued that the cryptocurrency\u2019s price history shows periods of \u201cextreme losses,\u201d adding that performance assumptions are impossible to analyze and that the asset \u201cshouldn\u2019t be relied upon\u201d to help clients meet financial goals.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s remarks come shortly after the UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ended its nearly four-year ban on crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) for retail investors. <\/p>\n<p>Hargreaves Lansdown said it plans to take several months to develop what it calls a \u201cbalanced client journey,\u201d ensuring customers receive detailed risk warnings and pass an appropriateness assessment before being allowed to invest. Clients who qualify will typically face a 10% portfolio cap on crypto exposure under FCA rules.<\/p>\n<p>The firm also highlighted new regulatory conditions for the UK market. <\/p>\n<p>The FCA will only allow crypto ETNs that are physically backed by bitcoin or ether \u2014 meaning they are supported by reserves of the underlying assets \u2014 and that are listed on a Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) such as the London Stock Exchange. These restrictions are intended to bring crypto products under the same disclosure, transparency, and investor-protection standards that apply to traditional securities.<\/p>\n<p>While bitcoin\u2019s inclusion in conventional portfolios remains a step too far for Hargreaves Lansdown, it acknowledged that some clients will still want speculative exposure. <\/p>\n<p>The firm said it expects to launch access to crypto ETNs in early 2026, with offerings likely to include pound-denominated, physically backed products from issuers such as 21Shares, CoinShares and WisdomTree.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK\u2019s largest retail investment platforms, has warned that bitcoin should not be treated as a core part of investment portfolios \u2014 even as it prepares to offer crypto products to clients for the first time. In a statement published on its website, the Bristol-based firm said bitcoin, despite its long-term [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-52337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}