Blockchain.com has picked up another piece of regulatory paper, securing a Virtual Asset Service Provider custody license from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. The approval, granted July 22, 2026, follows conditional sign-off from CIMA back in December 2025 and builds on a VASP registration the company first obtained in May 2022.
The license lets Blockchain.com offer regulated crypto custody alongside crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto exchange services out of the Cayman Islands, a jurisdiction that has become a preferred base for exchanges seeking a credible regulatory home without operating directly inside the EU or UK retail markets.
Part of a Broader Licensing Push
The Cayman approval doesn't stand alone. Blockchain.com has also picked up a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation license covering its European operations and registered with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, giving the company overlapping regulatory coverage across three jurisdictions in the span of a year. Lane Kasselman, Blockchain.com's co-CEO, framed the approvals as core to the company's strategy: “We believe strong regulation is essential to the long-term development of digital assets, and these approvals further strengthen our ability to serve customers across the region.”
Licensing Has Become a Competitive Necessity
The timing lines up with a broader scramble across the industry. The EU's MiCA transition period closed on July 1, 2026, and by the end of July only 323 crypto firms had secured a MiCA license, versus more than 1,700 that remain unlicensed and are now required to wind down EU operations. Coinbase, Kraken and OKX are among the platforms that cleared the bar; Binance remains the largest exchange still without one. Against that backdrop, a firm collecting custody and exchange licenses across multiple regulators — rather than relying on a single approval — is positioning itself as one of the more conservatively run venues at a moment when regulatory status has become a genuine differentiator for where institutional and retail money is willing to sit.
Crypto custody itself has turned into one of the faster-growing corners of the industry: analysts covering the sector estimate the crypto custody provider market will grow from roughly $2.1 billion in 2025 to about $3.52 billion in 2026, with institutional investors — hedge funds, family offices and investment banks — now accounting for the majority of that demand. A widening license footprint is one of the clearer ways a custody provider can signal it's built for that institutional audience rather than retail speculation alone.
