Tracking Ethereum: UK Financial Firm Launches Pension Crypto Investment Portfolio

 

U.K. financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown has launched its own pensions investment portfolio that can track the price of ethereum. The move is to help investors boost their retirement pots.Based in Bristol, the tracker functions on a synthetic basis; however, it still shows an index, commodity, bonds or a collection of assets such as an index fund, reports the Express .Danny Cox, spokesperson for Hargreaves Lansdown, said:

Unlike ETF trackers which buy the physical asset they are tracking, this does this synthetically.

He adds, however, that the investment portfolio should only be used by ‘sophisticated investors’ and should only form a small part of a larger portfolio.He states:

We have added it to our investment service as we have seen some demand from a few clients.

The growth of the digital currency market is continuing to gain dominance. According to CoinMarketCap, bitcoin is trading at $5,867 while ethereum is valued at just under $300, at $297. As a result, more attention is being placed on the blockchain. Unsurprisingly, several governments around the world are keen to develop or are already developing blockchain-based applications for multiple industries, one of which is the pensions sector.Yet, while the crypto market is experiencing a surge in price critics have come out against the industry. Most notable of all is Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase CEO, who called bitcoin ‘a fraud‘ last month. He followed that up by saying it was ‘ worth nothing.’More recently, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal thinks that bitcoin is ‘going to implode‘ because of its lack of regulation. Speaking to CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ he said:

It just doesn’t make sense. This thing is not regulated, it’s not under control, it’s not under the supervision” of any central bank.

Of course, despite criticism facing the digital currency market the combined market cap value is steadily increasing in price. At the time of publishing it’s worth just over $171 billion. Not bad for something is considered a bubble.