Hargreaves Lansdown opens crypto ETN trading for 2 million investors

Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest investment platform, is opening trading in crypto ETNs to its roughly 2 million clients from today. The platform offers nine products based on Bitcoin and Ether, issued by, among others, BlackRock’s iShares, WisdomTree, 21Shares, Invesco, CoinShares and Bitwise. Annual fees range from 0% to 0.35%. Notably, as recently as last October, the company argued that Bitcoin is not an investment category, the Financial Times reports.

In brief

• Hargreaves Lansdown is now the last major British investment platform to offer crypto ETNs.
• Nine Bitcoin and Ether ETNs from well-known issuers are available, with fees ranging from 0% to 0.35%.
• Clients must pass an eligibility test and observe a 24-hour waiting period for their first transaction.

From exception to offering

Until today, Hargreaves Lansdown was the only major British investment platform that did not yet offer crypto ETNs. All other major platforms had already led the way. In October last year, Hargreaves Lansdown said it did not consider Bitcoin an investment category, a stance it is now abandoning.

The British regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), lifted a four-year ban in October 2024 that had prevented retail investors from buying crypto ETNs. ETNs are exchange-traded products similar to ETFs that track the price of an underlying asset, in this case Bitcoin or Ether.

Conditions and investor protection

The crypto ETNs are accessible only to users of Hargreaves Lansdown’s Advanced Investing service. Clients must complete an eligibility test before they can trade. In addition, a mandatory 24-hour waiting period applies to the first transaction.

Doug Abbott, head of product development at the company, says Hargreaves Lansdown has taken the time to get the client assessment process right and to introduce the appropriate safeguards. The move fits into a broader trend in which British investment platforms are making crypto ETFs and ETNs increasingly accessible to retail investors.