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Survey: Crypto Investors Want UK Financial Advisers to Offer Digital Asset Support
Crypto investors in the UK are overwhelmingly in favour of financial advisers extending their services to digital tokens.
Nearly 90% of people who responded to a Twitter poll conducted by The Crypto Adviser felt independent financial advisers should embrace cryptocurrency as part of their service proposition.
The nation’s financial advisers have been crypto-averse for many years, with numerous studies demonstrating an unwillingness to embrace crypto among those in the industry.
Recent surveys have shown that nearly all independent financial advisers in the UK would never recommend cryptocurrencies or NFTs to clients and would not offer advice on the subject.
But as crypto and Bitcoin continue to move into the mainstream and a growing number of investors add the assets to their portfolios demand for professional advice is on the increase.
However, following our poll, I set out to see if I could find a financial adviser in the UK who was currently offering advice on crypto-related products, but the search didn’t last long.
While I found plenty of accountants offering advice on crypto tax, such as Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax, I struggled to find any companies or individual IFAs offering this service.
Search terms such as ‘independent financial adviser crypto UK’ and ‘crypto financial adviser UK’ didn’t yield any results, apart from The Crypto Adviser and the specialist accountants I’ve mentioned.
I found one firm of tax advisers – Mycryptotax – who were offering a cryptocurrency wealth management service, but the team are certified accountants rather than IFAs so this could only take an investor so far in their advice journey.
US financial advisers support spot crypto ETF
It seems other countries are better served than the UK. A number of specialist financial advisers offering crypto services in the US and other countries around the world appeared in the search results.
The lack of provision in the UK has led to many advised investors going it alone in the mostly unregulated cryptosphere and stepping outside the relationship with their financial adviser to get crypto into their portfolio.
A survey by WisdomTree at the end of 2021 found that 72% of UK advisers have spoken to their clients about crypto, but despite raising concerns many clients were continuing to invest independently.
This presents a dilemma for advisers, especially as the next generation of clients are growing up with digital assets, including crypto, NFTs and meme coins, in their portfolios.
A recent Nasdaq study of 500 financial advisers in the US revealed that 72% of financial advisers would support a spot crypto ETF product and that they would be more likely to invest in digital assets if such a product were available.
Many crypto investment companies have tried – and so far failed – to get a Bitcoin spot ETF approved by the SEC, but multiple applications are in the pipeline and many industry commentors believe it’s a case of not if but when this product is approved.
This stateside enthusiasm for crypto products is mirrored by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who has voiced his support of crypto, stating that it’s his “ambition to make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology”.
For now though, it seems UK Bitcoin investors will have to navigate their own path when it comes to adding digital assets to their portfolios, with financial advisers potentially missing out on a burgeoning new client base, while alienating existing clients who have a hunger for incorporating ‘digital gold’ into their investment strategies.
Whether you believe crypto is the future and is becoming more mainstream, or you still hold the rather outdated view that it’s a giant bubble waiting to burst, the huge growth in this asset class which has outperformed every other sector in the past ten years is impossible to ignore.
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Disclaimer: Nothing on this website constitutes financial advice. The information provided is for educational purposes only.
