Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK’s largest retail investment platforms, has warned that bitcoin should not be treated as a core part of investment portfolios, even as it prepares to offer crypto products to its customers for the first time.
In a statement posted on its website, the Bristol-based firm said bitcoin, despite its long-term price gains, “is not an asset class” and lacks the intrinsic characteristics that would justify including it in a portfolio for growth or income.
Hargreaves Lansdown argued that the cryptocurrency’s price history shows periods of “extreme losses,” adding that performance assumptions are impossible to analyze and that the asset “should not be relied upon” to help clients achieve their financial goals.
The company’s comments come shortly after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ended its nearly four-year ban on crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) for retail investors.
Hargreaves Lansdown said it plans to take several months to develop what it calls a “balanced customer journey,” ensuring customers receive detailed risk warnings and pass a suitability assessment before being allowed to invest. Qualifying clients will typically face a 10% portfolio limit on cryptocurrency exposure under FCA rules.
The firm also highlighted new regulatory conditions for the UK market.
The FCA will only allow crypto ETNs that are physically backed by bitcoin or ether (meaning they are backed by reserves of the underlying assets) and that are listed on a Recognized Investment Exchange (RIE), such as the London Stock Exchange. These restrictions are intended to hold crypto products to the same disclosure, transparency, and investor protection standards that apply to traditional securities.
While including bitcoin in mainstream portfolios remains a step too far for Hargreaves Lansdown, he acknowledged that some clients will still want speculative exposure.
The company said it expects to launch access to crypto ETNs in early 2026, with offerings likely to include physically backed, pound-denominated products from issuers such as 21Shares, CoinShares and WisdomTree.
