Bitcoin News

Story: Hargreaves Lansdown Shifts Stance, Now Offers Bitcoin ETNs to Retail Clients

By James Thorp

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A Shift Hard to Ignore. Hargreaves Lansdown still maintains its warnings. The company specifies that these products are…

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The American Precedent That Changes Everything. In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — the SEC — approved bitcoin ETFs for retail…

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Hargreaves Lansdown has reached a significant milestone. The Bristol-based investment firm now offers exchange-traded notes — ETNs — on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to its…

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Less than a year ago, the same company clearly stated that bitcoin was "not an asset class" and should not be included in portfolios aimed at growth or income.

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For those not in the loop, ETNs are investment funds traded on stock exchanges that track the prices of digital assets. No direct bitcoin holding. No crypto wallet to manage.

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Hargreaves Lansdown still maintains its warnings. The company specifies that these products are "considered high risk" and "can be very volatile.

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No detailed statement from the company yet on the reasons for this change. No press conference, no release explaining the logic behind this shift. We know what they are doing.

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What is certain is that the timing coincides with a global movement. Traditional financial markets are opening up to bitcoin at a pace not really anticipated three years ago.

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Read also: The SEC Approves Options for WisdomTree's BTCW, Strengthening Institutional Bitcoin Strategies

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Investors who had never been able to gain direct exposure to bitcoin rushed in. BlackRock, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley — the big names in asset management — all launched their…

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It's probably this signal that heavily influenced Hargreaves Lansdown's decision. Hard to ignore $100 billion entering an asset class you declared "not an asset class" twelve…

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And the ETNs offered in the UK operate on a principle similar to U.S. ETFs — without being strictly identical from a regulatory standpoint.

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The cryptocurrency market has gone through violent cycles in recent years. Spectacular rises, equally spectacular crashes. Hargreaves Lansdown knows this.

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Other British financial firms will likely watch this move closely. If Hargreaves Lansdown — known for its caution, its conservative retail client base — takes this step, it lends…

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Read also: Bitcoin and Gold Reach a Six-Year Record Correlation, Bitwise Sounds the Alarm

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