More than half of UK wealth advisers operate in the dark when it comes to client crypto assets. According to CoinShares, 52% of advisers report a major gap in visibility over what cryptocurrency their clients actually own, disconnected from the traditional holdings they monitor.
The visibility gap matters because advisers are responsible for knowing their clients' full asset picture. If half can't see the crypto portion, they can't properly assess leverage, tax consequences, conflicts of interest, or whether holdings suit the client's stated goals and risk tolerance. It's a clean regulatory and fiduciary problem dressed up as a technology infrastructure issue.
The root cause is structural. Most wealth-management platforms and custodians were built before crypto became common among retail clients. Advisers can monitor stocks, bonds, and funds in real time through integrated back-office systems. Crypto usually lives on separate exchanges or self-custody wallets entirely outside the adviser's purview. A client might hold Bitcoin or Ethereum independently, and the adviser only learns about it during a casual conversation, if at all.
The gap widens because crypto adoption among clients is genuine but adviser infrastructure hasn't caught up. Some firms have hired specialists or partnered with crypto custodians to plug the hole. Most haven't. The 52% figure suggests the problem is now pervasive enough that regulators and compliance teams should notice.
UK Financial Conduct Authority rules already require advisers to understand and disclose material conflicts and suitability risks. A major asset class the adviser can't see makes both of those duties harder to discharge. CoinShares' survey surfaces what compliance teams probably already suspect: the regulatory framework is intact, but the tooling to enforce it lags reality.