Coinbase Goes Full "Everything Exchange," UK Says Cheerio to Borders 🏦

Coinbase has secured a United Kingdom investment services license, clearing the platform to extend its local offering beyond spot crypto trading into equities and derivatives. The authorization, announced Tuesday, allows UK users to trade traditional financial instruments alongside digital assets inside the Coinbase platform.

Institutional and advanced traders will gain access to perpetual futures tied to crypto, equities and commodities, while retail users will be able to trade equities. Coinbase described the approval as its largest UK product expansion since entering the market, calling it a step toward its stated vision of an "everything exchange" that combines crypto and conventional financial assets on a single venue. The company said future rollouts would remain subject to regulatory permissions and UK market rules.

Coinbase cited Financial Conduct Authority research estimating that around 7 million UK adults hold crypto assets, with a quarter of non-owners saying they are more likely to participate under clearer regulation. The authorization arrives ahead of the UK's new crypto regime, which will begin accepting applications in September before taking effect in October 2027 and will require crypto trading platforms, custodians, stablecoin issuers, staking providers and other intermediaries to obtain FCA authorization. The FCA declined to comment before publication.

The available product mix reflects existing FCA rules on retail access. In 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority banned the sale, marketing and distribution of derivatives and exchange-traded notes referencing certain crypto assets to retail consumers. The FCA has since reopened retail access to certain crypto ETNs, with the change taking effect on Oct. 8, 2025, allowing retail consumers to trade crypto ETNs only on FCA-approved, UK-based Recognised Investment Exchanges, subject to financial promotion rules and consumer protection requirements.

The FCA confirmed that its ban on retail access to crypto derivatives remains in place, shaping which instruments Coinbase can offer to which client segments. Coinbase did not announce a specific launch date for the expanded UK product suite, and the rollout timetable remains subject to additional regulatory steps.