Daniele Bianchi, Assistant Professor of Finance at Warwick Business School, told Express.co.uk that failing to understand the differences between the various cryptocurrencies could be very

costly for City investors. Mr Bianchi said: “Bitcoin is a young and highly volatile speculative asset. Investing in Bitcoin is risky, everybody should realise that, the City of London

included”. The economist adds with over a thousand cryptocurrencies actively quoted on several exchanges - Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple - it is very important to understand

that offerings like Ethereum and Litecoin are based on very different protocols to those based on Bitcoin. Mr Bianchi said: “To make informed investment decisions one needs to understand the

after the first bitcoin futures launched on the established Cboe Futures Exchange allowing ‘cash settled’ futures and marking another step along the road to market trust and the growth of

liquidity. As Bitcoin moves towards the mainstream, Obi Nwosu, CEO of UK’s largest Bitcoin exchange, Coinfloor, told Express.co.uk his firm is seeing City of London institutional traders,

hedge funds, brokerages and proprietary trading shops attempting to develop more experience in how to understand bitcoin risk. Mr Nwosu saysit is essential that City of London investors

understand that cryptocurrencies, like any money system, is cultural, communal and ideological. On the difference between the types of cryptocurrency, Mr Nwosu said: “Bitcoin is initially

addressing the ‘store of value’ use case, and is often compared to Gold. “Ethereum is addressing the smart contract, smart computing and internet of things use cases. While another major

cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Cash, is addressing payments”. The Coinfloor CEO says despite being three different areas of focus, all of them are competing for the attention of people investing

and trading cryptocurrency, and generally, financial assets. The danger is that to Bitcoin investors, the three classes appear as one and the same thing - an opportunity for profit. Arianne

King, lawyer and managing partner at Al Bawardi Critchlow stressed to Express.co.uk that as the City of London moves towards Bitcoin, it is vital that potential investors do their homework

before investing in digital currencies. Ms King says that unscrupulous companies set up ICOs purely to gain capital from the public, with no intention of maintaining or developing the

currency in the future. She said: “My advice would be look at the company behind the currency. Who is on the board? Is it publicly floated? Is there a pipeline of other currencies or

products? “If the answer to these questions is yes, that’s a positive, although not definitive, sign that the currency represents a more credible investment”.