Coinbase has begun opening derivatives trading to professional investors in the United Kingdom, offering more than 170 contracts spanning crypto, commodities, equities and foreign exchange. The rollout, announced August 11, relies on a full MiFID-equivalent investment services authorization the exchange secured from the Financial Conduct Authority on July 7, 2026 — a license that lets Coinbase's UK arm, CB Payments Ltd, operate beyond its existing e-money and cryptoasset registrations.
The product lineup splits into three types. Perpetual futures span all 170-plus underlying assets, carry no expiration date, and allow leverage up to 50 times. Dated futures settle on fixed dates, price in cost-of-carry at entry rather than charging funding rates, and cap leverage at 20 times. Options are limited to crypto underlyings, offering calls and puts across both single-leg and multi-leg strategies. Coinbase says access will roll out progressively rather than all at once, and remains restricted to investors who qualify as professional under UK rules.
The same license already reshaped Coinbase's retail product
The derivatives launch is the second major product Coinbase has unlocked with its new UK authorization in the space of a week. On August 6, the company used the same MiFID license to open US equities trading to UK retail users, letting customers buy roughly 4,000 US stocks funded in GBP or USDC, with positions held through Apex Clearing Corporation. Derivatives, by contrast, stay off-limits to retail traders — the FCA has banned crypto derivatives sales to UK retail consumers since 2021, and that restriction isn't part of what the new license changes.
Coinbase had already been offering leveraged crypto futures to European users under a separate MiFID II framework since March 2026, but that product was capped at 10x leverage across 26 countries. The UK license's 50x ceiling on perpetuals is meaningfully higher, putting Coinbase's UK offering closer to the leverage terms typically associated with offshore derivatives exchanges rather than EU-regulated venues.
Timing ahead of the UK's crypto regime
The expansion lands well ahead of the UK's full crypto regulatory regime, which is scheduled to take effect in October 2027. Building out a licensed derivatives and equities business now gives Coinbase a head start on competitors still waiting for clarity on how that broader framework will apply to crypto-native trading products.
Related: White House Crypto Chief: CLARITY Act Must Pass by September 15
For now, the practical impact is narrow — professional investors only, a phased rollout, and a retail derivatives ban that remains firmly in place — but it signals Coinbase treating its UK MiFID license as a platform for a much wider product suite than crypto trading alone.
