More than half of UK wealth advisors say most of their clients’ crypto holdings sit outside their oversight. A new CoinShares survey blames firm policy, not investor appetite or advisor knowledge.

The poll of 261 wealth professionals across France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK found 52% of British advisors report a management gap above 50%. Across Europe, one in four faces the same blind spot.

Firm Policy Drives the Crypto Blind Spot

The survey defines the management gap as the share of a client’s digital asset exposure that an advisor cannot see. Holdings on personal exchanges or self-custody wallets fall outside the advisory relationship.

The report ties the gap to one factor. Some 61% of advisors work at firms that restrict digital assets or give no internal guidance. In those firms, active recommendation drops to 1%, against 48% at firms with clear support.

The gap moves the other way, from 4% at supportive firms to 34% at restrictive ones. CoinShares put the unmanaged exposure 8.5 times wider in blocked firms, the basis for its wrong-way risk warning.

The knowledge gap tracks the same line. More than three-quarters of advisors who call themselves under-informed work at blocked firms. That suggests training follows firm policy rather than the reverse.

The pattern is sharpest in the UK, which posts the widest gap even as domestic crypto regulation reforms advance.

“This is not a knowledge problem. It is not a demand problem. It is a firm-policy problem becoming a wrong-way risk,” Jean-Marie Mognetti, CoinShares co-founder and CEO said in the report.

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Advisors Want Access, Not Training

Asked what would raise their confidence, advisors pointed to structural change. Regulatory recognition of digital assets as a mainstream asset class ranked first at 45%. Access to exchange-traded products (ETPs) followed at 43%.

CoinShares commissioned the survey through Citywire. The firm is itself a Nasdaq-listed issuer of crypto ETPs, the access advisors ranked second.

Client-facing educational tools ranked last at 9%. The split suggests the barrier is institutional, since neither recognition nor product access is something an advisor can deliver alone. A broader EU crypto rules review is now testing how the framework performs.

Regulation Could Close the Gap

Britain’s stance has shifted fast. The Financial Conduct Authority banned retail sales of crypto exchange-traded notes in January 2021. It reopened retail crypto ETN access in October 2025. The regulator has since proposed letting authorized funds hold up to 10% in those products.

On the continent, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) transition ends on July 1. The shift creates a single European crypto market for regulated products. France’s financial regulator, the AMF, has opened a review of which assets qualify for UCITS funds. Digital assets still make up a sliver of Europe’s roughly €15 trillion regulated retail fund market.

Italy offers a counterpoint. Its advisor-led retail model records the lowest gap in the survey at 12%. With the MiCA July deadline approaching, engagement is converting demand into managed exposure there.

For wealth firms, the cost of waiting is rising. An estimated £1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) will pass to the UK’s next generation within a decade. Advisors who cannot see a client’s crypto risk losing the account as it changes hands.

Up to 8% already report rising client interest alongside an unmanaged majority, a sign clients are not waiting. The coming year of rule changes may decide who keeps that wealth in view.

Source: BeInCrypto