Coinbase has received a UK MiFID investment services license, paving the way for the company to expand its product suite beyond crypto into equities and derivatives. The announcement was made by Coinbase on July 7, after CB Payments, Ltd was recorded as “Authorised” by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) starting July 6, 2026.
This move marks Coinbase UK’s largest expansion of its product suite to date, while bringing the company closer to its ambition of building an “everything exchange” in regulated markets.
Coinbase Secures UK Investment Services Approval
Coinbase stated that the new license marks Coinbase UK’s largest expansion to date in terms of its product suite. In a blog post published on July 7, Coinbase referred to this as a UK MiFID license, or investment services authorisation, and stated that this license will support plans to introduce equities and derivatives to the platform in the UK.
Today marks our biggest ever expansion of Coinbase UK’s product suite.
We’ve now secured an investment services authorisation in the UK, enabling us to soon offer both equities and derivatives.
Another step to bringing the everything exchange worldwide. pic.twitter.com/sns3IGRHHM
— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) July 7, 2026
Data on the FCA Register shows that CB Payments, Ltd, Coinbase’s UK-related entity, holds firm reference number 1045733 and has been recorded as “Authorised” since July 6, 2026. This is a different tier of licence from the crypto registration and e-money licence that Coinbase already holds in the UK, as it relates to regulated investment services within the traditional financial framework.
This license expands Coinbase’s regulated scope of operations in one of the company’s most important international markets. Instead of only serving crypto spot trading and related payment services, Coinbase now has the legal foundation to develop additional investment products such as equities and derivatives in the UK, subject to specific deployment conditions and regulatory limits.
What the License Allows Coinbase to Offer
According to Coinbase, the new license will allow the company to add equities and derivatives to the UK platform in the near future. For retail users, the most visible change will be the ability to trade stocks directly within the Coinbase app, alongside existing crypto products.
For more professional client segments, Coinbase stated that institutional and advanced traders will be able to access derivatives products, including crypto, equity, and commodity perpetual futures. This is an important expansion as it moves Coinbase closer to the group of multi-asset trading platforms, rather than just competing in the crypto spot market.
The FCA Register shows that CB Payments, Ltd has been granted permissions within the investments category, including arranging deals and making arrangements with a view to transactions in investments. The Register also lists relevant investment types such as shares, futures, options, and contracts for differences, showing that the scope of the license is broad enough to support the product roadmap announced by Coinbase.
Currently, the company has not outlined a specific timeline, initial stock list, trading fees, account requirements, or which derivative products will be available first.
Why This Matters for the “Everything Exchange” Strategy
The UK license was announced by Coinbase during a period when the company was expanding beyond its image as a pure-play crypto exchange. In its Q1/2026 earnings deck filed with the SEC, Coinbase included the “Everything Exchange” among its 2026 priorities, aiming to allow users to trade multiple asset classes on a single platform, ranging from crypto, equities, and prediction markets to commodities and FX.
Derivatives are an area that Coinbase is heavily emphasizing in this strategy. The company stated that its trailing 12-month derivatives trading volume increased by 169% year-over-year, while retail derivatives have reached an annualized revenue of over $200 million. These numbers indicate that derivatives have begun to become a substantial product line, rather than just an experimental extension around crypto trading.
Coinbase Q1 2026 highlights on derivatives growth. Source: Coinbase
Coinbase is also entering an expansion phase with a much larger financial scale compared to previous cycles. In Q1/2026, the company recorded $1.4 billion in total revenue, $303 million in adjusted EBITDA, and $294 billion in assets on the platform. Total trailing 12-month trading volume reached $5.2 trillion, according to the company’s earnings deck.
In the UK, the new license links the equities and derivatives roadmap with the existing user infrastructure, custody, and stablecoin services already available in this market. This serves as a clearer example of how the company intends to expand from crypto trading into a multi-asset trading model within regulated markets.
Regulatory Restrictions and Compliance Context
The new license does not mean Coinbase can offer every investment product to every customer segment in the UK. The FCA Register notes that CB Payments, Ltd is not permitted to hold or control client money, and is also restricted from carrying out regulated business in contractually based investments for retail clients.
This restriction is particularly relevant to derivatives. In its announcement, Coinbase also clearly separated equities for retail users and derivatives for institutional and advanced traders. The company has not released further details regarding eligibility or how derivatives products will be offered in the UK.
Previously, the FCA fined Coinbase’s UK business £3.5 million in 2024 for deficiencies related to controls over high-risk customers. While the incident does not alter the new license, it serves as a noteworthy piece of regulatory context as Coinbase expands into more strictly regulated investment products.
What Comes Next for UK Users
Key details have yet to be disclosed by Coinbase. The company has not specified an exact launch date, the initial list of equities, fee schedules, or which derivatives products will be deployed first in the UK.
For equities, the main question is whether Coinbase will start with US stocks, UK stocks, or a limited catalog for retail users. For derivatives, the key areas to watch are the eligibility criteria for each client group, how Coinbase classifies advanced traders and institutional clients, as well as which products will be available at launch.
At present, Coinbase has only confirmed the license and product plans, rather than a full product launch. The next phase will demonstrate how Coinbase implements this license in practice, particularly in a market with strict regulatory requirements like the UK.
No Comment! Be the first one.