British investors go all in on Bitcoin

British investors have developed a burgeoning appetite for Bitcoin, with 38 times more money in sterling now being exchanged for the cryptocurrency than this time last year, according to Kraken, a popular cryptocurrency exchange.

Bitcoin, the original and most widely used cryptocurrency, soared in value to a record $19,920.53 (£14,864) this month. The previous height was in December 2017.

In contrast to three years ago, which was mostly driven by Asian investors, individuals trading the US dollar and sterling for the digital coin appear to be behind the recent frenzy.

Kraken, which is used by Bloomberg to report data on cryptocurrencies, said that 38 times more money in sterling is being exchanged for Bitcoin now than last year and the volume is eight times what it was in 2017.

There are suggestions that tighter regulation, such as the Financial Conduct Authority’s new mandatory register for companies selling cryptocurrency assets, may have made investors more confortable with Bitcoin.

Marcus Hughes, Europe manager at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, added that an “ongoing evolution” in cryptocurrency was driving customer activity in the UK.

Mr Hughes said among the reasons for higher trading volumes of Bitcoin in the UK were “increased levels of institutional interest, corporates, including MicroStrategy, taking Bitcoin onto their balance sheets and wider awareness of payment mechanisms”. 

Shares in business intelligence company MicroStrategy rose after it piled $475m of excess cash into Bitcoin, but tanked this week after it announced a debt sale to raise more money to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Research published by Chainalysis in September found that the UK ranked fifth for cryptocurrency use, with businesses or individuals receiving more than $9.5bn worth of cryptocurrency between July 2019 and June 2020.

The index was calculated by measuring the cryptocurrency activity occurring on each platform and distributing it by country based on the breakdown of countries accounting for web traffic to each platform’s website.