Coinbase has obtained a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive investment services license in the United Kingdom, clearing the regulatory path to offer derivatives and equities alongside its existing crypto products. This is not a minor paperwork win. It puts Coinbase in the same regulatory bracket as traditional investment firms, and it signals that the company’s long-stated ambition to become an “everything exchange” is moving from PowerPoint slide to actual product.
For UK users, the practical upshot is significant: retail clients will be able to trade stocks on Coinbase for the first time, while institutional and professional clients gain regulated access to derivatives referencing both digital and traditional assets.
What the MiFID license actually unlocks
Think of a MiFID license as the UK’s version of a full investment firm passport. It is what traditional brokers and asset managers hold, and it comes with strict conduct, reporting, and capital requirements from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Coinbase already holds an FCA-regulated e-money license and a MiCA-aligned European investment firm authorization in Cyprus, so this is not the company’s first regulatory rodeo in the region. The UK MiFID authorization is the piece that pulls derivatives and equities into the picture domestically.
