Coinbase Wins UK Licence to Sell Stocks Alongside Crypto Under One Login
Coinbase has secured a UK investment services authorisation, a MiFID licence that lets it offer equities and derivatives alongside crypto. UK retail users will be able to trade stocks on the platform for the first time.
Coinbase secures UK authorisation for investment services
On 7 July 2026, Coinbase announced that it had received UK authorisation to provide investment services. The permission is a MiFID licence — a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive authorisation — that lets the company offer traditional financial instruments, not only crypto. Keith Grose, Coinbase's UK chief executive, announced the step in a company blog post. Coinbase called it the largest expansion of its UK product suite since it entered the market.
New licence joins existing UK crypto permissions
The new licence sits within Coinbase's UK entity alongside its e-money licence and its crypto registration. The company received Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cryptoasset registration in February 2025. The e-money licence supports payment and stablecoin services, while the crypto registration covers its digital-asset business. Coinbase said the combination makes it the most comprehensively regulated crypto firm in the UK market.
UK retail users gain first access to equities
Under the licence, UK retail users can trade equities on Coinbase for the first time. Institutional and advanced traders gain access to derivatives, including crypto, equity and commodity perpetual futures. Coinbase said this is the opening set of products, with more instruments to follow in the coming months.
"In plain terms: we can now offer traditional financial instruments, not just crypto.", 7 July 2026. — Keith Grose, UK CEO, Coinbase
Coinbase widens its cross-asset push across markets
In the United States, Coinbase users already trade stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The US equities push began earlier in 2026 with access to thousands of listed securities. According to CoinDesk, eligible non-US customers can trade USDC-settled stock perpetual futures on large-cap names, including Apple, Microsoft and Tesla. CoinDesk also reported that Coinbase offers tokenised stocks backed one-for-one by US equities to eligible non-US users. The UK licence extends this cross-asset strategy to British retail investors.
USDC stablecoin underpins Coinbase payments and trading
USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin central to Coinbase's payments and trading products, traded at $1.00 with a $73.07 billion market capitalisation at the time of publication (CoinPaprika, 7 July 2026). The token recorded about $14.5 billion in 24-hour trading volume, up roughly a third from the prior day. It ranks among the largest stablecoins by market value and settles trades across Coinbase's crypto and derivatives markets.
Full UK crypto regime is expected in 2027
Coinbase said it expects the UK's full crypto regime to take effect in October 2027. The company cited FCA research finding that around 7 million UK adults already hold crypto, and that a quarter of non-holders would be more likely to participate under proper regulation. Coinbase said UK users can access regulated traditional investments today, without waiting for the wider framework. The company is building what it calls an "everything exchange", a single platform for payments, savings, crypto, and now equities and derivatives, with tokenised real-world assets planned next.
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