‘No real change here’ in UK’s new crypto rules  

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has brought in new marketing rules for crypto assets which are interesting for the crypto ETP industry only in that they reveal how popular the crypto world is in the UK among investors. The FCA’s figure reveal that the estimated crypto ownership has more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, with 10 per cent of the 2,000 people surveyed stating that they own crypto. Commenting on the news, Alice Haine, Personal Finance Analyst at Bestinvest, quoted a finding that she describes as ‘worrying’. "70 per cent of young people are more aware of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin as an investment option than any other investment, according to an April study by the Association of Investment Companies."

Our interview this week is with Ryan McCormack, Senior Factor & Core Equity Strategist ETFs & Indexed Strategies at Invesco, on the rapid growth of the firm’s Nasdaq 100 ETF, QQQM, which is enjoying quite the run of success in terms of asset inflows, having just achieved its USD12 billion in assets’ milestone. "This product speaks to the many benefits of ETF structure," he says. "QQQM, and other strategies in the ETF wrapper, offer benefits to the retail investor that would not have been available in a similar investment 20 years ago – it’s the democratisation of investing."

ETF Express is very excited to be off to Toronto for our inaugural ETF Express Canadian ETF Awards and it’s a good note to arrive on that ETF assets in the country are enjoying steady growth. The ETF industry in Canada gathered net inflows of USD2.12 billion in May, according to ETF data providers ETFGI.

Next week’s newsletter will come to you from Toronto and detail the winners in our awards.

I will not be putting my suitcase away for long because, post-Canada, I will immediately be off to speak and chair at IMPower Fund Forum’s conference in Monte Carlo, 27th to 28th June. We have a morning full of interesting panels and speakers on all things ETF, so do join me if you can.

The agenda is here, and I am very pleased to be able to offer my readers a 10 per cent discount on tickets, using this link or this discount code FKN3253EMSPK.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor

For live updates please follow us on Twitterand LinkedIn.