Hargreaves Lansdown, a major UK investment platform, cautions against treating bitcoin as a core part of investment portfolios, despite offering crypto products to clients. The firm argues that bitcoin lacks intrinsic characteristics for growth or income and has shown periods of extreme losses. This comes after the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority lifted a ban on crypto exchange-traded notes for retail investors. Hargreaves Lansdown plans to develop a balanced client journey with detailed risk warnings and caps on crypto exposure. The FCA will only allow physically backed crypto ETNs on recognized exchanges to meet investor protection standards. The firm expects to launch access to crypto ETNs in early 2026.

Read more at Yahoo Finance.: ‘Bitcoin Is Not an Asset Class,’ Says One of UK’s Largest Retail Investment Platforms