UK Asset Manager Adds Support for Ethereum Exchange-Traded Product

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26 October 2017

UK-based asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown is moving to offer its customers access to two ethereum-based exchange-traded notes (ETNs).

According to a report by CityWire,  the asset manager is opening its doors to two ethereum-tied ETNs – named COINETH:SS and COINETHE:SS – that are denominated in Sweden’s national currency, the krona, and the euro, respectively. The move comes just months after the company first began offering its client base some degree of access to the cryptocurrency market.

In June, the firm – which was founded in the 1980s and boasted more than £61 billion in assets under management last year – announced that it was working with Swedish firm XBT Provider to allow its customers to buy shares in an ETN tied to bitcoin. That ETN, traded on Sweden’s Nasdaq exchange, was first approved in 2015.

The idea behind securities like XBT’s ETNs is that, rather than investing directly in the market through the purchase of a cryptocurrency, investors can buy exposure through related instruments instead.

Danny Cox, head of communications at Hargreaves Lansdown, described the offering as a “complex investment” for select investors.

London image via Shutterstock