£172B investment service Hargreaves Lansdown opens crypto ETNs to UK users

Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, has begun offering crypto exchange-traded notes to everyday clients. 

The new offering gives millions of retail investors regulated exposure to Bitcoin and Ether, nearly a year after the ban on retail access was lifted.

How do crypto ETNs work?  

Hargreaves Lansdown, which holds over a third of the UK market, now offers crypto ETNs to its customers. Crypto ETNs track the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum, but investors don’t actually own the coins, and there are no wallets or private keys to handle. 

Instead, the notes are issued by a bank or financial firm that physically holds the cryptocurrencies in custody.

This system will allow millions of everyday investors to invest in Bitcoin and Ether through a regulated product, almost a year after the ban was lifted.

The Boring Money Market Monitor Q3 2025 report says that HL holds a 33.6% share of the UK direct-to-consumer market by assets under administration, more than double the 17.0% held by second-placed Interactive Investor. It also runs the country’s most-used self-invested personal pension. 

HL is charging a 0.35% annual account fee to hold crypto ETNs in a Fund and Share Account or a SIPP, capped at £12.50 per month. Dealing charges run between £3.95 and £6.95 per trade. 

The products are inside the firm’s Advanced Investing hub, and it bluntly warns that buyers should be prepared to lose everything they invest. Adding that, if the note’s issuer goes bankrupt, the money can vanish. 

HL suggests such holdings make up only a small slice of an already diversified portfolio.

Revolut’s guidance also makes it clear that the Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not cover crypto ETNs, and that the products carry the full volatility of the assets they track.

Why were retail investors banned from buying crypto? 

The ban keeping retail investors away from crypto ETNs was implemented in 2021. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) changed its approach in June 2025 and formally allowed retail access to certain crypto ETNs listed on recognized UK exchanges from 8 October 2025. 

After the change, companies like 21Shares, Bitwise, WisdomTree, and BlackRock listed Bitcoin and Ether ETNs on the London Stock Exchange.

The catch, however, is in how these products will be taxed. HM Revenue & Customs confirmed that from 8 October 2025, crypto ETNs would initially qualify inside Stocks and Shares ISAs, the account most UK savers actually use. 

But from April 6 this year, the HMRC reclassified the products as qualifying investments only within the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA). Investors who already held the notes in a Stocks and Shares ISA did not have to sell.

Trade body CryptoUK has argued that the reclassification goes against the FCA’s work to open up access. It noted that around 15 million Britons subscribed to an ISA in the 2023–24 tax year, while the IFISA is used by well under 1% of ISA holders.