IG, the OG investment platform in the UK (over 50 years old and a FTSE 100 company) has now launched crypto trading. They actually invented spread betting back in the day (where you can bet on the price of an asset increasing, making it tax-free), and are still leading the way.
This is a huge moment in the industry, as crypto has been kept very much separate from existing investing and trading platforms, being limited to specific crypto-only exchanges (a place to buy and sell crypto), such as Coinbase. IG¹, as far as we know, is the first traditional trading platform to launch direct crypto trading in the UK.
A solid prediction would have been that crypto platforms start to absorb traditional trading and investing, but with IG, it’s the reverse, and they are attempting to absorb crypto trading. This could be a huge moment for them, and hats off to them.
Trading with IG means you can benefit from their decades of experience refining the platform to offer the best experience possible for trading, and things like great customer service, reliability, speed and trading volume.
IG often runs deals, such as free shares, check the link below for the latest deals.
You can bring your crypto trading into the same platform as your regular trading, so there’s no need to run multiple trading platforms (unless you want to). Or, now add crypto exposure to your IG portfolio without having to register elsewhere in the murky world of crypto exchanges.
IG launches with over 55 cryptocurrencies, including all the major coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana (and Dogecoin of course), with new coins added after undergoing checks. Find out all the current coins on the IG website¹.
You can trade within the IG mobile app, and on their web platform (website), and you can trade the crypto market 24/7 too (as crypto never sleeps). There’s no minimum investment, so you can get started with just £1.
Fees wise, it’s very competitive too. There’s a flat fee of 1.49% included within the spread of an asset (that’s the difference between the price you buy at and the price you sell at if trading at the same moment in time).
There’s no other hidden fees, like there can be with crypto exchanges. As a quick comparison, with Revolut you’d be paying around 2.49%, which includes a spread fee and a trading fee. Coinbase is similar and can be up to 2.47% and eToro is 1.75% (which includes a conversion fee from Pounds (GBP) to Dollars (USD)).
When trading, you’ll be buying the cryptocurrency directly, and this is held securely within your IG account ready for when you wish to sell. You don’t have a crypto wallet with IG (a place to store your own crypto), you don’t hold your own private keys (a crypto password to access your coins) and you can’t send it off the platform to an external wallet (yet).
At the moment, there’s no trading the price via Contracts for Differences or spread bets (advanced trading tools), or more crypto specific tools such as perpetual futures. That’s because in the UK, it’s not currently legal to trade crypto with these types of tools unless you are a professional trader.
IG¹ is a huge name in trading (perhaps the biggest), it’s very well established, and they are still expanding rapidly, such as this expansion into crypto trading, but also more recently they acquired Freetrade, a popular investment app (tailored more to new investors).
IG was founded way back in 1974, and is famous for spread betting, but offer a well rounded investment and trading platform consisting of both a traditional investment side, where you can buy, sell and hold stocks, shares and funds, within traditional accounts like an ISA (tax-free) and pension (for retirement), and a trading side, where you can trade CFDs and spread bets (tools to trade the price of an asset instead of buying it directly).
On this trading side you can trade a huge range of investment options, including stocks, funds, indices, foreign exchange (forex), futures, options, commodities and more. We won't go into what all these are right now.
The investment range is huge, with over 13,000 stocks and shares to buy and sell from across the world. And offers the full range of advanced trading tools and features, such as trading with leverage (borrowed money).
We think IG¹ is a really great investment and trading platform, it’s trustworthy, reliable and has an excellent app and website. So with the addition of crypto trading, it does make sense to bring this all into one platform.
Currently, IG is tailored for traditional investors (investing in stocks and shares), and the new addition of crypto is likely aimed squarely at those investors who might want to add some crypto exposure to their portfolio, as a direct buy and hold, or for those new to investing in general and are interested in crypto as their first investments and looking for a reliable and trustworthy brand.
Pure crypto investors are likely already using another platform they are happy with, and this launch is likely not going to tempt them away purely for crypto but IG might now tempt them over to traditional investing at some point, now they’re on the crypto map.
Overall, this new crypto offering with IG is great, and it’s an exciting time for both traditional investing and crypto investing. The app and website is excellent, customer service is great, and the platform is reliable. What’s not to love? We recommend checking it out. Learn more and get started on the IG website¹.
IG often runs deals, such as free shares, check the link below for the latest deals.
