CoinShares survey exposes UK crypto oversight gap

• CoinShares found that 52% of UK financial advisers cannot see most of their clients' cryptocurrency holdings.
• The survey identified firm policies rather than investor demand as the main reason advisers lack visibility over digital asset portfolios.
• The findings come as regulators and industry participants continue expanding crypto investment and payment infrastructure.

CoinShares reported that 52% of UK financial advisers cannot see most of their clients' cryptocurrency holdings, highlighting a gap between digital asset adoption and traditional wealth management oversight.

The survey of 261 wealth management professionals across Europe found the equivalent figure was 25% across France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, while 61% of respondents said their firms either restricted digital assets or lacked a clear crypto policy.

"The capital has already been allocated. The people entrusted with managing it simply cannot see it, and in most cases not because clients are unwilling to engage, but because firm policy prevents them from doing so," said CoinShares co-founder and CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti.

Mognetti said firm policies prevent advisers from incorporating clients' crypto holdings into portfolio management, creating what he described as a risk because advisers cannot assess a client's full financial position.

The findings coincide with growing cryptocurrency adoption in the UK, where the Financial Conduct Authority previously estimated that about 8% of adults owned digital assets and has proposed allowing authorised investment funds to allocate up to 10% of assets to cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes.

Industry participants have also argued that blockchain-based payments are becoming the next major area of adoption, with Ripple executives highlighting improvements in payment infrastructure, stablecoins and regulated fiat on-ramps.

At the same time, regulators continue increasing oversight of digital assets, including India's Financial Intelligence Unit requesting major cryptocurrency exchanges preserve records of over-the-counter transactions exceeding US$10,000 from January 2026 onward.