Coinbase UK stock trading launched today, giving eligible users access to close to 4,000 US equities directly inside the app they already use for crypto and cash holdings. Trades start from as little as £1, carry no commission, and support fractional shares, meaning you can buy a slice of a stock rather than a full share.
The exchange said access will roll out progressively to all UK users. Funding can come from either GBP or USDC (a dollar-pegged stablecoin), and Coinbase confirmed that existing stablecoin balances can be used directly for stock purchases without first converting to cash.
What Coinbase UK Stock Trading Actually Offers
Trading hours are set at 24 hours a day, five days a week, going well beyond the standard sessions of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq. Extended-hours trading is not new, but access to it through a single app alongside crypto holdings is a different proposition for most retail platforms.
Coinbase has framed the product as part of its broader goal of building what it calls an “Everything Exchange”, covering stocks, crypto, derivatives, savings, and borrowing on one platform. The stock launch is the latest step in that build-out, not the beginning of it.
The groundwork was laid in July 2026, when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) granted Coinbase authorisation to offer investment services beyond crypto for the first time. That approval also opened access to derivatives, including perpetual futures on crypto, equities, and commodities, for institutional and advanced traders.
A Year of Regulatory Moves Before the Equities Launch
Coinbase’s UK product expansion has been methodical. In February 2025, the company received its VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider) registration from the FCA, which it described at the time as making it the largest UK-registered crypto exchange.
In November 2025, Coinbase launched a GBP savings account in partnership with ClearBank, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by both the PRA and the FCA. The account launched at 3.75% AER; the current Coinbase UK savings product page now lists the rate at 3.50% AER (variable), reflecting a reduction since launch.
The savings account carries Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protection, which covers eligible deposits if the bank holding them fails. The launch documentation cited £85,000 as the coverage limit, matching the standard FSCS cap. Coinbase’s current savings product page states cover up to £120,000, which may reflect ClearBank-specific arrangements or updated terms. Both figures are from Coinbase’s own pages; the higher figure is what the product page currently shows.
In April 2026, Coinbase added a crypto-backed borrowing product built on Morpho, a decentralised finance (DeFi) lending protocol that operates via on-chain smart contracts rather than Coinbase’s own balance sheet. UK users can borrow USDC against Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings. By 14 April 2026, total loan originations through Coinbase on Morpho had reached over $2.17 billion USDC, according to Coinbase’s UK borrow product blog, driven initially by US demand ahead of the UK rollout.
Coinbase also launched DEX (decentralised exchange) trading in the UK in April 2026, rounding out a product suite that now spans savings, borrowing, crypto trading, and equities within a single regulated wrapper.
Where Coinbase Sits Against the Competition
Coinbase is not first to combine stocks and crypto for UK retail users. eToro has offered equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), commodities, and cryptocurrencies in one account for several years, alongside social copy-trading tools that Coinbase does not provide. The competitive difference is Coinbase’s sequencing: it has pursued FCA authorisation before each product launch rather than building the product first.
The UK’s broader crypto regulatory framework does not come into full legal effect until 25 October 2027, with firms able to start applying for licences under that regime in late 2026. By securing investment services authorisation now, Coinbase can offer regulated stock trading ahead of that deadline and ahead of competitors still working through their own applications.
Coinbase cited survey data suggesting UK retail investors hold fewer stocks than their US counterparts, though the company has not published the underlying data. Whether the product closes that gap depends partly on whether UK investors treat a crypto-native app as a credible home for long-term equity savings, a question the next phase of Coinbase’s global expansion may help answer. The FCA authorisation’s full scope, including tokenised real-world assets, is still being built out, making the equities launch a milestone rather than a ceiling.
