CoinShares Survey: 52% of UK Advisers Cannot See Client Crypto Holdings

The Visibility Gap

CoinShares released survey results Thursday showing that 52% of UK financial advisers lack visibility into the majority of their clients' cryptocurrency holdings. The restriction stems from firm-level policies rather than individual adviser limitations, according to the findings. This gap means wealth managers cannot monitor or assess crypto exposure as part of their standard portfolio oversight.

Risk-Management Implications

The inability to see client crypto positions creates a blind spot in wealth management. Advisers operating under firm policies that exclude crypto from their monitoring systems cannot factor digital assets into suitability assessments, diversification analysis, or rebalancing decisions. For advisory firms managing significant client assets, the lack of visibility into an increasingly common asset class presents a compliance and fiduciary-duty question.

Industry Context

The survey points to a structural gap between adviser frameworks designed before crypto became mainstream and current client behavior. As crypto adoption has grown among retail and high-net-worth investors, traditional wealth management infrastructure has not kept pace in all cases. Some advisers operate under blanket policies excluding crypto rather than integrating it into their standard monitoring and reporting systems.