Headline: Tax-free crypto returns return to UK ISAs as Stratiphy wins green light for ETNs
Stratiphy, a London-based fintech, has secured approval to offer cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETNs) inside a special class of Individual Savings Account (ISA), reopening a tax-free route for UK retail investors to hold crypto-linked products, the Financial Times reports.
What changed
- HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) decided at the end of February that crypto ETNs can only be held inside Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISAs) from the start of the current tax year on April 6. IFISAs are the ISA wrapper authorized to invest in these instruments.
- ISAs let savers shelter up to £20,000 a year from income tax and capital gains tax. The two most common wrappers are cash ISAs and stocks & shares ISAs; IFISAs are a less common option designed for peer-to-peer and other alternative finance products.
Why this matters
When the ban on retail access to crypto ETNs was lifted last year, the move had little practical effect because few mainstream platforms offered IFISAs — leaving the products effectively out of reach for most retail investors. HMRC’s reclassification made that problem acute again, and drew criticism that the UK risked becoming an outlier compared with other markets where exchange-traded products (ETPs) have opened crypto investing to a much wider retail base.
What Stratiphy is offering
- Stratiphy will make three ETNs from issuer 21Shares available inside IFISAs: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and a combined BTC-and-gold ETN.
- The platform opened in August last year and currently manages about £4 million for roughly 2,000 retail and corporate clients.
Company view
Stratiphy CEO Daniel Gold told the FT the firm sees strong demand for crypto products: "We see a disproportionate level of interest in these [crypto] products. It's a really interesting way to diversify your portfolio. It's a new asset class with low correlation to other asset classes."
Stratiphy did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
Bottom line
For UK investors who want tax-efficient exposure to bitcoin or ether without holding the tokens directly, Stratiphy’s approval restores a pathway via IFISAs — but availability remains limited to platforms that support the IFISA wrapper and the specific ETNs being offered.
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