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Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

A crypto exchange-traded note (ETN) is a financial product that allows you to invest in cryptoassets, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, directly through your investment account without needing to buy or store the cryptoassets yourself.

Crypto ETNs are debt instruments issued by a financial institution, which means you are exposed to the issuer’s credit risk. However, this risk (while not eliminated) is reduced because the issuer physically holds the underlying cryptoassets.

In practice, this means that each note is backed by real cryptoassets held in custody. In addition to being physically backed, the crypto ETNs we offer are listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and the underlying cryptoasset is Bitcoin or Ethereum.

The main difference between cryptoassets and crypto ETNs is that buying cryptoassets means you own the actual crypto, while crypto ETNs allow you invest in the price of the crypto through a product on the stock exchange, without needing to store or manage the cryptoassets yourself.

Crypto ETNs do not eliminate the inherent volatility of cryptoassets. The value of a crypto ETN still rises and falls with the price of the underlying cryptoasset, so investors remain exposed to the same high volatility risks.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) doesn’t protect this type of investment because it’s not a type of investment that the FSCS can protect. Learn more by using the FSCS investment protection checker on this page.

Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Read more about FOS protection on this page.