Crypto Without the Nonsense (Updated November 2026)

Nov 3, 2026 ·@gazman

Read this first

Crypto is still confusing, still risky and still worth understanding. ESAS has dabbled for 13 years and taken it seriously for 10, so here is what we think, updated for November 2026.

What has changed in the past year:

Bitcoin has had a hangover. It hit a record of about $126,000 on 6 October 2025, then fell by roughly a third. This autumn it has traded in the high $70,000s to mid $80,000s, after dipping into the low $60,000s earlier in 2026.
UK rules are arriving. The FCA published its final crypto rules on 30 June 2026. The full regime starts on 25 October 2027.
UK retail investors can buy crypto ETNs. Since 8 October 2025 they have been allowed on UK-recognised exchanges, though not the derivatives that remain banned.
Stablecoins grew up. The US passed its first federal stablecoin law (the GENIUS Act) in July 2025, and Tether hired KPMG to audit USDT in March 2026.
Altcoins took a beating. Most of the big names are down by roughly half or more over twelve months.

What a cryptocurrency actually is

To us, a cryptocurrency is a virtual currency built to work as a trustless medium of exchange. Cryptography secures the transactions and controls the creation of new coins, and a public blockchain (a ledger of every transaction) keeps everyone honest. Anyone can hold it, and no one is in charge. Note that this is a deliberately strict subset of the formal definition. Ethereum and Ripple are big players for other reasons, but in our humble opinion they are not proper currencies.

Avoid meme coins at all costs. They are an insult to the principles of crypto: at best a bit of fun, at worst (and far more often) a scam. If a coin arrived with a celebrity, a cartoon animal and a Telegram group, keep walking.

Why people wanted an alternative to fiat

Fiat money is what we are used to: a currency with no intrinsic value, established as money by government decree. It dominated in the 20th century, and since Richard Nixon decoupled the US dollar from gold in 1971, the world has run on national fiat currencies with freely floating exchange rates. The Fed, the ECB and the Bank of England can create more dollars, euros and pounds whenever they please. Central banks did exactly that on a huge scale through quantitative easing after 2008 and again in 2020, and inflation steadily erodes what your savings can buy.

Proper crypto works the other way round. Its supply is fixed by the maths, cannot be changed on a whim, and the creation of new coins tapers towards zero over a fixed schedule.

The backdrop was the subprime mortgage fiasco, which brought down Lehman Brothers in the US and Northern Rock in the UK and triggered the financial crisis of 2007/08. Northern Rock’s savers were looked after, but the creditors of the big US and UK banks were bailed out rather than the debtors. Save the too-big-to-fail banks and leave the public to pick up the bill. Few senior bankers ever faced prosecution, while taxpayers footed a bill measured in trillions and endured years of austerity.

A short history: from cyberpunk to the genesis block

Neal Stephenson whetted our appetites in 1992 with his cyberpunk classic Snow Crash. Adam Back followed with Hashcash in 1997, and Nick Szabo with “bit gold” in 1998, a mechanism for decentralised digital money that was little more than a thought experiment, albeit a brilliant one. In 1997 William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson published The Sovereign Individual, a book on surviving the collapse of the welfare state, which shows the movers and shakers were waiting too.

Then came the financial crisis, and public disgust at above-the-law banks. The scene was set.

18 August 2008: the domain bitcoin.org is registered.
31 October 2008: Satoshi Nakamoto posts the paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System to a cryptography mailing list.
3 January 2009: Satoshi mines the first block, the genesis block, for a reward of 50 bitcoins. Embedded in it is the not-so-cryptic message “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
January 2009: the open-source software is released and the network goes live.

Nobody has proved who Satoshi is. The pseudonym clearly builds on the work of Back and Szabo, and theories abound that it covers one person or several. The late Hal Finney, the PGP coding maestro, and the late Len Sassaman are often named in the speculation, which is all it is. It remains a spicy mystery.

Bitcoin: still the daddy

Bitcoin is the daddy of the cryptos, and there is no “next Bitcoin”, so ignore anyone who claims otherwise. If you want in, it is Bitcoin. Unlike the US dollar, the world’s reserve currency, nobody can print more when they run a bit low: supply is capped at 21 million coins.

The issuance of new bitcoin halves roughly every four years. The most recent halving, in April 2024, cut the reward to 3.125 bitcoin per block, and the next is due around 2028.

As a store of value away from corruptible fiats, it is still the only game in town. Think of it as digital gold, but be honest about the ride. The record of about $126,000 in October 2025 was followed by a drop of roughly a third within a year. Plenty of loud 2025 forecasts of $150,000 to $250,000 simply did not happen. Volatility is the price of admission, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

As a replacement for cash it is more limited. The main chain is not designed for high-volume, low-value payments, although second-layer systems such as the Lightning Network exist for that. Use a trusted exchange to buy and sell (more on that below).

Struggling to picture what a bitcoin is? It is not a file wrapped in uncrackable cryptography. It is an entry in a public ledger that can only be moved with a unique private key, a long string of seemingly random characters. Like any asset, if at least one other person thinks it has value, it does. Add some bulletproof high-end maths and a world ruled by aloof banksters, and there are more than a few believers.

Institutions are now believers too. US spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in January 2024, and UK retail investors have been able to buy Bitcoin-linked exchange traded notes since October 2025.

Buying in: the UK options in 2026

You need some Bitcoin. There are four sensible routes, in rough order of how much control you want.

An exchange such as Kraken. It is a proper trading platform with trader-friendly features and low fees, and has served UK customers since 2014 with GBP pairs and an FCA-issued e-money licence. It has been preparing a stock market listing (a US filing in November 2025, then a reported pause in March 2026), but has said it still intends to float. It used to creak when busy, and the whole sector is still lightly regulated, so if you consider Kraken the best of a bad bunch you will not go far wrong. Don’t keep more than you need on any exchange.
A fiat-only app such as Revolut. If you only want to buy and sell with pounds and don’t care about wallets or sending coins, the convenience is real, but so is the cost. Compare the fees and spreads before you commit, because they have been far above exchange rates. Feature-rich apps like crypto.com sit in between.
Straight to your own wallet. An old-school broker such as Bittylicious (check it still suits you) lets you pay by bank transfer and receive coins in a personal wallet like Electrum. Back up your wallet, secure the backups, and understand what your private key is. If you hold thousands of pounds’ worth, get your head around cold (offline) wallets.
Exchange traded notes (new since October 2025). UK retail investors can now buy Bitcoin and Ether ETNs through ordinary investment platforms, on UK-recognised exchanges. They are simple and familiar, but you are buying a note, not coins you control, and there is no Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover.

The rules are changing, slowly

Until the new regime starts on 25 October 2027, the FCA’s reach over crypto firms is mostly limited to anti-money-laundering registration and rules on promotions. The authorisation window for firms opened on 30 September 2026 and closes on 28 February 2027. Firms that don’t apply in time will have to wind down their UK business. Before depositing money with anyone new, check them on the FCA Register. The new rules will also put retail investors in line for clearer risk warnings, tougher standards and access to the Financial Ombudsman.

Banks and tax

A crypto-friendly bank account is still worth having. Monzo was a good choice when we first wrote this, but bank attitudes change: one report says UK banks block or delay around 40% of transfers to crypto exchanges. Send a small test payment first. Remember too that selling, swapping or spending crypto can trigger Capital Gains Tax, so keep records of every transaction, and check HMRC’s current guidance because platforms are now collecting more data for tax authorities.

Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and the smart-contract chains

Ethereum is not a general-purpose currency like Bitcoin. It is a public, blockchain-based, distributed scripting platform that runs smart contracts. Its token, ether, is still the second most valuable crypto by market cap, and still the home of most decentralised finance.

Two corrections to what we wrote last year. Ethereum stopped mining in September 2022, when it switched to proof of stake (the “Merge”), cutting its energy use by over 99%, so you can no longer mine ether. And while ether was largely pre-mined, the “leading platform for initial coin offerings” line is long out of date, because ICOs have largely given way to token launches and airdrops.

Personally we still prefer Solana and Cardano: open source, peer-reviewed, and designed to improve on Ethereum, with ADA being smart contracts with knobs on. Solana in particular has gone from underdog to serious contender. In February 2026 it settled more stablecoin volume in a month than Ethereum for the first time, though one month does not make a trend. Treat all of these as high-risk, because the big altcoins have fallen hard since their 2025 highs.

Two more to keep an eye on:

Polkadot, with its interconnected blockchains. It reportedly capped its supply at 2.1 billion DOT in March 2026 and cut inflation to about 3% a year.
Avalanche, with its dApp support and custom networks (subnets).

Stablecoins: safe haven, if you pick the right one

Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged to a currency, usually the US dollar, and the sector has become much bigger and more regulated. The total market passed $320 billion in 2026, even while the rest of crypto sold off.

Tether (USDT) is by far the largest, at about $185 billion of supply. For years its audit trail was the problem: new tokens by the billion, backed by reserves checked only by periodic attestations. In March 2026 it hired KPMG for its first full audit, which is a good sign, but full audits of this size typically take 12 to 18 months. It has also launched a separate US-regulated token, USAT, aimed at the American market.
USDC (about $78 billion) is the better-regulated alternative, and our pick for a safe haven. Get one backed by reality.
The law has changed. The US GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, created the first federal framework for payment stablecoins, with reserve and audit requirements. In the UK, issuing stablecoins becomes a regulated activity when the new regime starts in October 2027.

Last year we said to move stablecoins around cheaply on Polygon and stake them for interest. Fast, cheap chains such as Solana are now heavily used for stablecoin payments, and the “interest” is not paid by the issuer, so it depends on the platform paying it. Treat it as lending to that platform, and don’t chase yield.

The rest: altcoins, day-to-day coins and scams

There are thousands of so-called altcoins. Litecoin, the original “new Bitcoin”, remains a popular port of call for a decent network with low transaction costs. Dash, Monero and Zcash (faster, with better anonymity) and even DOGE, a joke with legs, are all proper digital currencies, with a public blockchain, distributed miners and a hard-limited supply. They still occupy the “store of value” space for the technically aware, and we are still waiting for the one with mass appeal.

A genuine day-to-day crypto has yet to emerge. It needs low fees, proof of stake and fast confirmation. We once liked Electroneum, but it went niche, and Cronos, the Crypto.com coin, has fallen from nearly $1 in 2021 to under 10p. Stablecoins have quietly become the real payments workhorse.

Now the sobering bit. On justETF’s tables, Solana, XRP, Avalanche and Polkadot are down by roughly half or more over twelve months. That is the risk in this corner of the market.

Initial coin offerings and new token launches are wildly speculative. Avoid them unless they look like a real game-changer backed by real talent, and never with money you can’t afford to lose. A few are great and most are worthless. Be extra alert for scams that sound too good to be true: fake “guaranteed return” schemes, romance-and-investment cons, unsolicited messages from “advisers”, and “recovery services” that target people who have already lost money. Always check the FCA Register and the FCA’s warning list.

Mining in 2026: probably don’t

Mining is the validation of transactions, used by all so-called proof-of-work cryptos, Bitcoin included. It is numerically intensive. Bitcoin mining is now an industry of specialist hardware (ASICs) and cheap electricity, so running SHA-256 on a CPU or GPU will cost more in power than the coins are worth. Don’t bother.

Proof of stake is better for the planet: instead of burning electricity, holders lock up coins to validate transactions and earn rewards. Cardano and Solana work this way, and since September 2022 so does Ethereum, which means ether can no longer be mined.

GPU mining of smaller proof-of-work coins, such as Ethereum Classic, was a hobby worth about 80p a day last year on a mid-range card. We have not re-verified that figure, and with UK electricity prices we wouldn’t count on it. If you already own a decent games PC, a profitability calculator such as whattomine.com will tell you where things stand, but don’t buy a pricey GPU just for mining: buy on an exchange. If you do mine, join a pool, do your own research on which, and withdraw earnings as soon as you can, from pools and exchanges alike. NiceHash is easy, but has been hacked in the past.

Spread betting and CFDs: it’s gambling, and for UK retail it’s banned

If you just want to lose money quickly, spread betting will do it. It is online gambling and has nothing to do with the game-changing properties of crypto.

In the UK it is also off the menu: the FCA has banned the sale of crypto derivatives, including CFDs and spread bets, to retail clients since January 2021. When it opened up ETNs in 2025 it said the derivatives ban would stay. Check the current position before signing up with any provider, because the ban was still in place the last time we looked. Beware offshore firms that will happily take your money anyway.

If you want to speculate, buying the asset itself, or an ETN, is the legal route. Momentum rules of thumb such as “buy after a 25% weekly rise” are not a strategy, and if you chase the market, set a stop-loss, take profits, and never gamble more than you can lose.

Quick checklist

Only invest what you can afford to lose entirely.
Check any UK platform on the FCA Register before depositing, and ignore anything promising guaranteed returns.
Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere, and keep wallet backups and private keys offline.
Keep large holdings off exchanges, in a wallet you control.
Keep a record of every purchase, sale and swap for Capital Gains Tax.
If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

This is ESAS’s opinion, not financial advice, and we are not authorised financial advisers. Crypto is unregulated or only lightly regulated, prices swing wildly, and you can lose everything. Figures and rules are as at 3 November 2026 and may change.

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