--- title: "Half of UK Wealth Advisers Can't See Most of Their Clients' Crypto" description: "A CoinShares survey of 261 European wealth managers finds that 52% of UK advisers say most of their clients' crypto sits outside their oversight — and that firm-level restrictions, not lack of demand, are the main reason. Across Europe, one in four reports the same blind spot." category: "Crypto" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/crypto author: "Priya Venkatesan" published: 2026-06-25T10:48:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-25T10:48:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/half-of-uk-wealth-advisers-can-t-see-most-of-their-clients-crypto tags: ["crypto", "wealth-management", "coinshares", "regulation", "etf"] --- # Half of UK Wealth Advisers Can't See Most of Their Clients' Crypto A CoinShares survey of 261 European wealth managers finds that 52% of UK advisers say most of their clients' crypto sits outside their oversight — and that firm-level restrictions, not lack of demand, are the main reason. Across Europe, one in four reports the same blind spot. A large share of crypto wealth is invisible to the very professionals paid to manage their clients' money — and, according to a new survey, the reason is mostly the advisers' own firms. ## The numbers CoinShares, a digital-asset investment firm, surveyed 261 wealth-management professionals across France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and found that **52% of UK advisers report a "management gap" above 50%** — meaning more than half of what their clients hold in crypto sits outside the adviser's view, [The Block reported](https://www.theblock.co/post/406099/half-of-uk-wealth-advisors-say-most-clients-crypto-sits-outside-their-oversight-as-61-of-european-peers-face-firm-restrictions-coinshares). Across Europe as a whole, about one in four advisers report the same, with Italy lowest at 12%, [according to CoinShares' release](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/25/3317265/0/en/The-Silent-Portfolio-A-Quarter-of-European-Wealth-Managers-Cannot-See-the-Majority-of-Their-Clients-Digital-Assets.html). (CoinShares issues crypto investment products, giving it a commercial interest in wider adviser access — worth noting when weighing the framing.) ## What "oversight" means, and why the gap matters When an adviser manages a portfolio, oversight means being able to see the holdings, gauge the risk, watch for over-concentration and report performance. For shares and funds, that's routine. But crypto a client buys on their own exchange account or holds in a private wallet is invisible to the adviser: they can't see the balance or cost basis, can't fold it into the client's overall asset allocation, and can't flag when a single token has ballooned into an outsized share of someone's net worth. Tax and estate-planning questions go unaddressed too. When that hidden slice exceeds everything the adviser does manage, as it does for most UK clients in the survey, the professional financial system is effectively flying blind on a real and volatile piece of household wealth. ## The cause is policy, not disinterest The survey's striking finding is that the gap is driven by firms, not by clients or adviser ignorance. CoinShares said **61% of respondents work at "blocked firms"** that either bar advisers from discussing crypto or offer no guidance at all. The contrast is sharp: at firms that support crypto advice, the active recommendation rate is 48% and the management gap falls to 4%; at restricted firms, recommendations collapse to 1% and the gap widens to 34%. Advisers at supportive firms were about 4.5 times more likely to make a recommendation. CoinShares chief executive Jean-Marie Mognetti framed it bluntly: "This is not a knowledge problem. It is not a demand problem. It is a firm-policy problem." ## What would change it Asked what would most raise their confidence, 45% of advisers pointed to clearer regulatory recognition and 43% to access to exchange-traded products — regulated, listed funds that track crypto and can sit inside a normal brokerage account, be valued daily and slot into a financial plan like any other holding. Direct crypto can't. The preference signals that advisers want instruments that fit existing compliance and custody systems, not workarounds. ## The regulatory backdrop The survey arrives amid an active regulatory moment. The EU's MiCA framework is phasing in a harmonized crypto licensing regime; France's markets regulator is weighing whether crypto could fit within mainstream fund structures; and in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has proposed capping crypto exchange-traded-product exposure within authorized funds. Those are precisely the developments advisers say they are waiting for. The picture CoinShares paints is of a structural mismatch: clients are already invested, their advisers are constrained from engaging, and a growing pool of crypto wealth sits beyond the reach of the people meant to manage it. ## Sources - [Half of UK wealth advisors say most clients' crypto sits outside their oversight: CoinShares](https://www.theblock.co/post/406099/half-of-uk-wealth-advisors-say-most-clients-crypto-sits-outside-their-oversight-as-61-of-european-peers-face-firm-restrictions-coinshares) - [The Silent Portfolio: a quarter of European wealth managers cannot see the majority of their clients' digital assets](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/06/25/3317265/0/en/The-Silent-Portfolio-A-Quarter-of-European-Wealth-Managers-Cannot-See-the-Majority-of-Their-Clients-Digital-Assets.html)