Catenaa, Monday, August 10, 2026 – Coinbase has secured full investment-services authorization from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, allowing the crypto exchange to expand beyond digital assets into US equities, derivatives and tokenized stocks for British users.
The authorization is described as MiFID-equivalent and goes beyond Coinbase’s existing cryptoasset or e-money permissions. It allows the company to offer regulated investment products under one UK framework rather than routing different services through separate entities.
The centerpiece is tokenized US equities backed one-for-one by underlying shares and carrying dividend rights. Coinbase plans to deliver them through its onchain infrastructure rather than as synthetic products or contracts for difference.
That structure moves Coinbase closer to becoming a multi-asset capital markets platform rather than a conventional crypto exchange.
UK users will also gain access to US stocks with fractional investing, extended 24/5 trading and the ability to start with small amounts. Funding can be linked to both traditional currency and USDC, integrating stablecoin balances more closely with equity trading.
The company is following a model already introduced in the US, where Coinbase launched stock and ETF trading earlier this year with access to thousands of listed securities, fractional shares and extended trading hours.
The UK version adds tokenization as a more visible part of the strategy.
That could become an important differentiator as financial firms compete to bring traditional assets onto blockchain networks. Tokenized equities can potentially combine regulated ownership with faster settlement, programmable transfers and integration with digital wallets.
The authorization also gives Coinbase greater scope to offer multi-asset derivatives, including products linked to crypto, equities and commodities.
For Coinbase, the bigger opportunity is converting existing crypto users into customers for a wider range of financial products.
The move also arrives before the UK’s broader crypto regulatory framework is expected to become fully operational, giving Coinbase an early advantage over exchanges that currently hold narrower crypto registrations.
The remaining question is whether British users who already use Coinbase for digital assets will adopt stocks and derivatives in meaningful numbers.
If they do, the exchange could emerge as one of the clearest examples of crypto infrastructure evolving into a broader financial-services platform.
