IG Spot Crypto Reviewed: Is It the Best Way to Buy Crypto in the UK? (2026)
- expertise:
- CFD Trading, Forex, Derivatives, Risk Management
- credentials:
- Chartered ACII (2018) · Trading since 2012
- tested:
- 40+ forex & CFD platforms with live accounts
- expertise:
- Platform Testing, Cryptocurrency, Retail Investing
- credentials:
- Active investor since 2013 · 11+ years experience
- tested:
- 50+ platforms · 200+ guides authored
How We Test
Real accounts. Real money. Real trades. No demo accounts or press releases.
What we measure:
- Spreads vs advertised rates
- Execution speed and slippage
- Hidden fees (overnight, withdrawal, conversion)
- Actual withdrawal times
Scoring:
Fees (25%) · Platform (20%) · Assets (15%) · Mobile (15%) · Tools (10%) · Support (10%) · Regulation (5%)
Regulatory checks:
FCA Register verification · FSCS protection
Testing team:
Adam Woodhead (investing since 2013), Thomas Drury (Chartered ACII, 2018), Dom Farnell (investing since 2013) — 50+ platforms with funded accounts
Quarterly reviews · Corrections: in**@*******************co.uk
Disclaimer
Not financial advice. Educational content only. We're not FCA authorised. Consult a qualified advisor before investing.
Capital at risk. Investments can fall. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.
CFD warning. 67-84% of retail accounts lose money trading CFDs. High risk due to leverage.
Contact: in**@*******************co.uk
Quick Answer: Is IG the Best Way to Buy Crypto in the UK?
For the majors, held long term inside a regulated broker, yes. A £1,000 purchase of Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana costs about 70 pence, 0% commission plus a 0.07% external exchange fee, and the coins sit with Coinbase Prime under IG Digital Assets Ltd, which joined the FCA cryptoasset register on 30 September 2025. That combination of price and supervision is the best in this pillar's testing. The limitation is just as clear: IG still takes market orders only. You cannot leave a bid below the price and wait, there is no staking, and coins outside the big three cost a flat 1.49%. Month after month of dated pillar testing says IG is the strongest home for a portfolio-first buyer of the majors, and the wrong tool for altcoin hunters and order-book traders. This review is the capstone of that work, with every claim linked to the page that proved it.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
What Do You Actually Get with IG Spot Crypto?
Real coins, not a price bet. IG's spot service sells you the cryptocurrency itself, from £1 per coin, tradeable 24/7 alongside the shares and indices you may already hold with the same login. The range is 150+ crypto assets as IG advertises it, per ig.com/uk/crypto with figures the page states are correct as of 27 August 2026, and IG adds coins regularly, which is exactly why we never print a hard number without a date attached.
The plumbing matters more than the marketing. The service runs through IG Digital Assets Ltd, on the FCA's cryptoasset register since 30 September 2025, and IG was the first UK-listed broker to get there. Custody sits with Coinbase Prime, a regulated institutional custodian with SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 certification, cold storage for the majority of assets and segregated, separately identifiable holdings. One sentence has to follow all of that, and it is not small print: the FSCS does not cover crypto here or anywhere else, so the register entry and the custodian are the protections you are actually relying on.
What Does It Cost, Really?
IG prices this in two tiers, and the gap between them is the whole pricing story. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana trade at 0% commission with a 0.07% external exchange fee included in the price, charged by IG's liquidity partner. Everything else costs a flat 1.49% when you buy, sell or swap. Fiat deposits and withdrawals are free, by bank transfer, card, Apple Pay or Open Banking.
| Trade | Fee | On £1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana | 0% commission + 0.07% external exchange fee | About £0.70 |
| Any other coin, bought or sold | 1.49% flat | £14.90 |
| Swap between the big three | Zero commission, same 0.07% structure | Pennies |
| Swapping anything else | The 1.49% rate again | £14.90 |
| Moving pounds in or out | Free on every supported method | £0 |
Seventy pence against fourteen pounds ninety. That ratio should steer what you buy here. The full worked breakdown, including the live purchase we logged when the 0% headline first appeared, is on our IG crypto fees page, and the swap mechanics get their own treatment in the crypto swaps guide.
Can You Move Coins In and Out?
Yes, and a year ago the answer was no, which is the single biggest change in this review. Transfers in went live first: 20 tokens supported at launch, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Solana, from exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp or from self-hosted wallets like Ledger and MetaMask. IG charges nothing for transfers in, and absorbs the network fees too, per its transfer fees help article dated 22 June 2026.
Transfers out followed in July 2026, and they carry the caveats. Desktop web only at launch. A £10,000 daily limit across all assets, resetting at midnight. You need two-factor authentication and a wallet-ownership verification step, and the Travel Rule applies above €1,000. No IG fee, and the network fee is none in most cases, per help article 748148 dated 17 July 2026. So the full loop finally exists: buy, swap, hold, leave. It is just narrower on the way out than crypto natives will be used to. Our full transfers guide walks the whole process, and the coin range page tracks which tokens can actually travel.
How Does It Compare with the Exchanges?
We have now run IG against four crypto-native rivals, each on its own page with dated figures. The pattern held every time: IG owns the majors on cost and clarity, the exchanges own breadth and the long tail. IG did not win every row of any of them, and it does not win every row of its own review either.
| Head-to-head | One-line verdict |
|---|---|
| IG vs Coinbase | IG is the cheaper, plainer home for the majors; Coinbase wins on range and crypto-native depth. |
| IG vs Kraken | Kraken for altcoin pricing and the pro order book, with IG's case resting on clarity inside a regulated broker. |
| IG vs eToro | IG undercuts it on major-coin cost, which leaves eToro arguing the social layer and having everything in one app. |
| IG vs Crypto.com | Crypto.com earns the ecosystem, card and self-custody rows honestly; IG earns price and supervision on the big three. |
Where Does It Still Fall Short?
The gap that affects every single trade is order types. IG's spot crypto service takes market orders only.
IG's own help centre, in an article dated 28 May 2026, lists limit and stop orders as coming soon, and as at 1 September 2026 we can find no announcement that they have arrived. That is a real limitation, not a quibble. If your method is placing a bid 5% below the market and waiting, IG cannot do it, and every exchange in the table above can.
The rest of the list breaks nothing in the core offer, though every item narrows who it is for. There is no staking, so idle coins earn nothing here. Transfers out work from desktop web only, capped at £10,000 a day, and only 20 of the tradeable tokens can currently travel at all, so an altcoin position may be sellable but not movable. And that 1.49% flat fee outside the big three is beaten by exchange order books at every size we tested.
How Did I Test It?
I paid for every test myself, with real money and dates, across months of pillar work rather than one afternoon. The fee test came first: a live purchase to check the 0% headline against the contract note, logged on the fees page. The how-to-buy walkthrough documented the journey from deposit to holding, screen by screen. When swaps went live we swapped, and when transfers went live we tested the eligibility hoops and wrote up the full transfer process. The four exchange comparisons each ran IG's published, dated figures against the rival's own. Where a number on this page is IG's claim rather than our test, it says so and carries its date.
Verdict: Who Should Buy Crypto Through IG?
The verdict splits by buyer. If you want Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana held for the long term next to your other investments, IG is the best route we have tested: 70 pence per £1,000, an FCA-registered entity, institutional custody, and now a working exit to your own wallet. If you want breadth, staking or serious altcoin positions, use an exchange; Kraken and Crypto.com won those rows in our comparisons, and they won them on merit. And if you trade actively on limit orders, IG is simply not ready for you yet, though the day that changes this review changes with it.
For the first group, this is an easy product to recommend. You can check IG's current crypto pricing here, and our wider verdict on the broker sits in the full IG review.
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References
- IG: Buy and sell crypto (UK) and crypto fees (both checked 1 September 2026; coin figure stated correct as of 27 August 2026)
- IG help centre: crypto order types and custody (article dated 28 May 2026), transfer fees and supported tokens (22 June 2026), transfer out process and limits (article 748148, 17 July 2026), all checked 1 September 2026
- FCA: cryptoasset register entry for IG Digital Assets Ltd (registered 30 September 2025; checked 1 September 2026)
- The Investors Centre: the crypto pillar's dated tests, including IG crypto fees, crypto transfers and the four exchange comparisons linked above
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