Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the UK’s largest retail investment platforms, has warned that bitcoin should not be treated as a core part of investment portfolios — even as it prepares to offer crypto products to clients for the first time.

In a statement published on its website, the Bristol-based firm said bitcoin, despite its long-term price gains, “is not an asset class” and lacks the intrinsic characteristics that would justify including it in a portfolio for growth or income.

Hargreaves Lansdown argued that the cryptocurrency’s price history shows periods of “extreme losses,” adding that performance assumptions are impossible to analyze and that the asset “shouldn’t be relied upon” to help clients meet financial goals.

The company’s remarks come shortly after the UK’s Financial Condu

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