Coinbase Secures UK Authorization for Investment Services, Expanding Beyond Crypto

In brief

Coinbase has secured UK authorization to offer regulated investment services, letting it provide traditional financial instruments beyond crypto.

UK users will be able to trade equities on the platform for the first time, while institutional and advanced traders gain access to crypto, equity, and commodity derivatives.

The license adds to Coinbase's existing UK e-money and crypto registrations and advances its push to become an "everything exchange."

Crypto exchange Coinbase has won regulatory approval to offer stocks and derivatives to UK customers, the biggest expansion of its product line-up in one of its largest international markets and its latest move toward what it calls the "everything exchange."

The exchange said Tuesday it had been granted a UK investment services authorization, sometimes called a MiFID license, from the Financial Conduct Authority, allowing it to offer traditional financial instruments beyond crypto.

Retail users will be able to trade equities on Coinbase for the first time, the company said in a statement, while institutional and advanced traders gain access to derivatives spanning crypto, equity, and commodity perpetual futures.

The UK approval advances Coinbase's ambition to become an "everything exchange", a single app spanning crypto, stocks, derivatives, prediction markets, payments, and savings that pits it against brokerages, banks, and fintech apps.

In the U.S., it became the first centralized exchange cleared to offer crypto perpetual futures and has begun rolling out stock trading, Kalshi-powered prediction markets, and plans for tokenized equities. It recently added savings and borrowing products for UK users.

The UK's new rules

The authorization sits alongside Coinbase's UK e-money licence and crypto registration, a stack the company said makes it the "most comprehensively regulated crypto player" in the market. It arrives as Britain finalizes its broader crypto rulebook, with the FCA publishing its framework in late June and a full regime due to take effect in October 2027. Coinbase cited FCA research estimating that about 7 million UK adults already hold crypto.

For now, the derivatives will be restricted to institutional and advanced traders. The FCA still bars the sale of crypto derivatives to UK retail investors, leaving equities as the main new product for everyday users.