UK's biggest broker reverses itself, opens Bitcoin trading

Hargreaves Lansdown is Britain's largest investment platform, with about 2 million customers. Less than a year ago, it told those customers bitcoin "is not an asset class." On Sept. 3, it started letting them buy it anyway. Clients can now choose from nine Bitcoin and Ether funds built by BlackRock, WisdomTree, 21Shares, and Bitwise.

The company hasn't fully changed its mind, at least not out loud. Hargreaves Lansdown still warns that bitcoin carries a risk of extreme losses. It still says bitcoin doesn't count as a real asset class. It's opening the door anyway. That's a telling contradiction. Britain's most cautious mainstream broker just started selling something it called risky. That usually means customers were already finding ways around the old ban. The UK's financial regulator had already lifted its own ban on these products.

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Will other conservative, mainstream brokers follow the same path? Hargreaves Lansdown was one of the last major holdouts in UK retail investing. Its reversal removes the excuse other cautious platforms might have been hiding behind.