Risk Disclosure

Crypto is high risk. You can lose everything you put in, and there is no safety net underneath you.

If that sentence changes how much you were going to invest, then it has done its job. Everything below is the detail behind it.

The value of any crypto asset can fall as well as rise. It can fall very fast, and it can stay down for a long time.

You should never invest money you cannot afford to lose. That includes money you might need for rent, bills, an emergency or anything you are saving towards.

• Only ever use money you could lose without it changing your life
• Never invest money you have borrowed
• Never invest money that belongs to somebody else

Crypto assets are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. If something goes wrong, that scheme does not step in and pay you back.

The Financial Ombudsman Service generally cannot look at complaints about crypto assets either. In practice, that means if you lose money, you may have very little practical route to getting it back.

Do not treat crypto as a safe place to hold money you will need later. It is not a savings account and it does not behave like one.

Some assets are volatile. Crypto assets are among the most volatile things you can put money into, and a few features make that worse rather than better.

With some products you can lose more than your original deposit and end up owing money. This is most common where leverage or borrowed funds are involved, because a loss is magnified in the same way a gain would be.

If you are considering anything that involves borrowing to trade, treat the possibility of a debt you cannot repay as a real outcome rather than a remote one.

Past performance tells you nothing about what happens next. A coin that rose sharply last year is not more likely to rise this year because of it.

Nobody can predict crypto prices. Anyone who tells you they can, or who shows you a chart claiming to prove it, should be treated with suspicion. Be especially careful with anything that promises a particular return, a fixed percentage, or a guaranteed profit. Those promises are a hallmark of fraud, not of investing.

This site publishes no price predictions and no return forecasts. If you ever see either on a page carrying our name, tell us, because it should not be there.

When you buy crypto through a platform, you are usually trusting that platform with your money and your assets. That trust carries risk of its own.

Platforms have failed, frozen withdrawals and been hacked. When that happens, customers have sometimes waited years and recovered only a fraction of what they held.

• Check whether the platform holds your assets separately from its own, or mixes them together
• Check what happens to your assets if the company becomes insolvent
• Understand that a platform showing a balance is not the same as you controlling those assets
• Keep records of everything you buy, in case you ever need to prove what you held

Crypto attracts fraud on a scale that is unusual even for finance. The techniques are well documented and worth learning, because recognising them is the single most useful protection you have.

Be very cautious of anyone who approaches you first, whether by message, phone, social media or a dating app, and then steers the conversation towards crypto.

• Any offer that promises a specific return or a guaranteed profit
• Pressure to act quickly, or claims that a window is about to close
• Requests to install remote access software on your device
• Anyone asking for your seed phrase or private keys. No legitimate service ever will
• Platforms or firms claiming to be authorised when you cannot find them on the official register

Do not fund crypto purchases with a credit card, a loan, an overdraft or money released from a pension.

Borrowing magnifies both directions. If the price falls, you still owe the full amount you borrowed, and the loss lands on money that was never yours to lose.

You are responsible for working out and paying any tax you owe on crypto. HMRC publishes guidance on how crypto assets are treated, and it is worth reading before you assume anything.

We explain how the rules work in general terms. We do not calculate your tax and we cannot tell you what you owe. For your own situation, speak to a qualified accountant or tax adviser.

Nothing on this site is financial advice, investment advice or a personal recommendation. We explain how things work and what the risks are. We do not tell you what to buy, what to sell, or when to do either.

We do not know your circumstances, your income, your debts, your goals or how much risk you can carry. Without that, nobody can tell you what is right for you over a website.

If you want advice about your own money, speak to somebody qualified who can look at your full situation.

This site publishes educational content about crypto risk for UK readers. Nothing on it is a financial promotion, and no investment service, product or account is offered through it.

We do not hold client money, we do not execute trades on anyone’s behalf, and we do not manage investments for anybody.