Coinbase secured a MiFID investment-services license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority on July 7, clearing the way to offer traditional financial products alongside crypto in Britain for the first time. The license is Britain's post-Brexit equivalent of the EU's MiFID framework.
Institutional and advanced traders can now access crypto, equity, and commodity perpetual futures through Coinbase in the UK. Retail customers gain the ability to trade equities on the platform for the first time, though FCA rules still bar UK retail investors from trading crypto derivatives, keeping that product limited to institutional and advanced traders.
The license stacks on top of Coinbase's existing UK e-money license and crypto registration, which the company says makes it the most comprehensively regulated crypto platform in the market. It supports Coinbase's wider "Everything Exchange" push to expand beyond crypto into stocks and derivatives ahead of the UK's full crypto regulatory framework taking effect in October 2027.