UK's Biggest Retail Platform Now Sells Bitcoin ETNs

Hargreaves Lansdown, the U.K.’s largest retail investment platform, has begun selling nine bitcoin and ether exchange-traded notes to its two million clients.

Nine listings from six issuers

The products, announced Thursday, come from BlackRock’s iShares, CoinShares, WisdomTree, 21Shares, Invesco and Bitwise.

Annual fees run from 0% to 0.35%.

The Bristol-based firm, which oversees more than $200 billion in assets, said the rule change in the U.K. now lets it offer regulated crypto products so long as clients understand what they are buying.

A reversal in under a year

The listings arrive less than a year after Hargreaves Lansdown publicly told retail investors to stay away from cryptocurrencies, and 11 months after the Financial Conduct Authority lifted its four-year ban on crypto ETNs for retail buyers.

The warnings have not changed

Even while adding the products, the firm restated the position it took last October:

“Bitcoin is not an asset class.”

It said bitcoin lacks the intrinsic characteristics that would justify holding it in a portfolio for growth or income, despite its long-term gains.

Its price history also shows periods of “extreme losses,” the firm said, which is why the asset “shouldn’t be relied upon” to help clients meet financial goals.

Checks before the first trade

New buyers have to complete an appropriateness assessment and then wait 24 hours before they can place an order.

The FCA, which lifted its ban on crypto exchange-traded products in October, requires firms to test whether retail clients grasp the risks involved, including the risk of losing everything they put in.