Coinbase Secures UK Investment License, Opening Stocks and Derivatives to British Users

Coinbase has secured a UK investment services authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority, clearing the exchange to offer equities and derivatives alongside crypto in the UK for the first time.

The license lets UK retail users buy and sell stocks on Coinbase for the first time, and gives institutional and advanced traders access to perpetual futures on crypto, equities, and commodities, Coinbase UK CEO Keith Grose announced in a company blog Tuesday. Retail investors in the UK still cannot legally trade crypto derivatives under FCA rules, so that product remains limited to institutional and advanced traders for now.

The new license builds on Coinbase’s other UK approvals: an e-money license and a crypto registration already in place. In the blog post, Grose said that combination makes Coinbase “the most comprehensively regulated crypto player” in the British market, calling the license “the single biggest expansion of our UK product suite since we entered the market”.

Grose cited FCA research showing roughly 7 million UK adults already hold crypto, with a quarter of non-holders saying they’d be more likely to participate if the sector were clearly regulated. The UK’s full crypto regime is set to take effect in October 2027; he said the new license means UK users don’t have to wait until then for regulated access to stocks and derivatives.

Grose also framed the license as part of Coinbase’s push to become an “everything exchange” — a single platform spanning crypto, stablecoin payments, savings, borrowing, and now equities and derivatives.

“We believe crypto is the foundational architecture of the modern financial system, and the gap between traditional and digital finance is closing fast,” he said in the same blog post. “The UK is now one of the first markets where users will see what that convergence actually looks like.”

The move extends products Coinbase already offers elsewhere. The exchange has been cleared to offer crypto perpetual futures to non-U.S. customers, and it’s separately building tokenized U.S. stocks backed one-for-one by underlying equities for eligible non-U.S. users.

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