Coinbase Gains Approval to Offer Digital Asset Services in the UK

Coinbase has received approval to offer digital asset services to customers in the UK—the latest sign that the U.S. company is deepening its footprint in Europe as it aims to boost business.

The crypto exchange clinched a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from British regulators Monday, according to a company statement. 

The license allows the fintech platform to offer digital asset trading to institutional and retail clients in the UK—a move that lets Coinbase broaden its largely U.S.-centric user base and potentially rake in more revenue. 

“This is a critical registration to cement our strong position in the UK and unlock our ambitious expansion plans,” a Coinbase spokesperson said Monday in the statement, adding that the exchange aims to onboard one billion people to crypto globally.

Coinbase Payments, a subsidiary of Coinbase, has offered e-money services in the UK since 2018. But until now, the company couldn’t offer crypto products and services to users there. 

Coinbase’s approval comes less than a year after regulators settled an investigation into the firm’s British subsidiary, Coinbase Payments, according to the company’s blog post. 

During the investigation, officials examined Coinbase Payments for “unintentional breaches” of a voluntary agreement the firm had entered into with British regulators in late 2020.

Armed with a newly issued VASP license, Coinbase can now launch crypto products and engage with various marketing channels across the region.

“Our new UK VASP registration will mean that [Coinbase Payments] can not only continue to provide our customers with fiat services but now can also provide crypto services,” a Coinbase representative told Decrypt.  

Coinbase is now the largest registered digital assets player in the UK, the firm claimed. Meanwhile, the UK has become Coinbase’s second-largest market, according to the company.  

Coinbase had roughly eight million monthly transacting users in the U.S. as of late last year, making it the digital asset platform’s largest market, according to the company’s latest quarterly financials.

The firm has made several pushes to expand its business beyond the U.S. and into Europe in recent years. Coinbase opened an office in Dublin in 2018, and it began serving customers in Germany just two years later.  

The trading platform also reportedly explored purchasing FTX Europe to turbocharge its expansion across the continent following the latter exchange’s collapse in late 2022, according to Fortune Magazine.

However, those talks never reached a late stage, the publication reported, citing internal documents obtained by its journalists.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair