Britain’s biggest online trading platform, Hargreaves Lansdown, is to provide customers with the option to invest in Bitcoin by granting access through the form of an exchange-traded note (ETN).
The fund, which is provided by Swedish company, XBT Provider, is listed on NASDAQ’s OMX. Retail investors will be able to access the digital currency through their Self-Invested Personal Pension (Sipp) and brokerage accounts.
XBT Provider manages Bitcoin Tracker One, which, when launched in 2015, became the first Bitcoin-based security on a regulated exchanged when it was listed on the NASDAQ/OMX in Stockholm. The Swedish company also manages Bitcoin Tracker Euro.
Yet, while XBT purchases certificates listed in U.S. dollars, that aim to track the price of Bitcoin, the ETN will be listed in the Swedish krona. As such British investors can expect to be exposed to two levels of currency risk.
In a report from British newspaper, The Telegraph, XBT stated:
The value of and any amount payable under the certificates will be strongly affected by the performance of bitcoin and the US dollar/krona exchange rate. As such an investment in the certificates is likely to be highly volatile and thus risky.
Such a move by the online trading platform essentially opens the door for U.K. investors keen to add digital currencies to their investment portfolios.
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Ryan Radloff, head of investor relations at XBT Provider, said in Investment Week:
By adding self-service, online dealing, the team at Hargreaves Lansdown is providing U.K. investors with professional and quick access to the bitcoin space in the U.K. and greater Europe. This is very exciting for any investors who have been thinking about buying bitcoin, but did not want the hassle of security and regulation involved in buying bitcoin directly from exchanges.
The price of the digital currency has escalated since the start of the year, more than doubling from $1,000 on January 1 to trade over $2,400 today. Its all-time high, so far this year, was when it reached $2,750 last month.
Predictions, though, for the currency could see it reach $100,000 in 10 years. That’s according to Saxo Bank analyst Kay Van Petersen, who was reported recently making his latest prediction. In December, 2016, he correctly predicted that Bitcoin would reach $2,000 in 2017, which it did last month.
This was due to an increase in Japanese investors embrace the digital currency after the country accepted it as a form of payment, helping to push demand and its price up.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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