Robinhood Gets UK’s Permission to Offer Crypto Services

Robinhood received regulatory permission to begin offering cryptocurrency services in the United Kingdom.

The traditional platform has been part of the Financial Conduct Authority’s list of registered cryptoasset companies since July 31.

The company’s inclusion by the FCA was flagged in a Monday (Aug. 3) CoinDesk report, which said Robinhood’s new permission has special significance ahead of the adoption of a more comprehensive framework for digital asset regulation in the U.K.

Legislation earlier this year placed crypto under the FCA’s regulatory umbrella. New rules that go into effect in October 2027 will keep the authority’s oversight of crypto limited to financial promotions and anti-money laundering controls.

“This is a significant moment for crypto regulation in the U.K.,” David Geale, the FCA’s executive director of payments and digital finance, said earlier this year. “We’ve created a framework that doesn’t force firms to choose between regulatory certainty and room to innovate. This regime means they can have both in a stable, competitive home to build and grow. For consumers, it means firms will be held to similar standards to other financial providers, though we can’t regulate away risk.”

The relatively short window for businesses to register and win full regulatory approval means those companies already registered under the FCA’s regime might have done a substantial amount of advanced work, the CoinDesk report said.

Robinhood last week reported earnings showing record quarterly revenue of $1.3 billion, a 32% increase from a year earlier, along with new highs in the company’s equities, options and prediction market business.

However, management said Robinhood’s next phase is not mainly about processing more trades.

“Across prediction markets, tokenized assets, banking and credit cards, the financial platform is attempting to control more of the customer relationship and more of the transaction stack beneath it,” PYMNTS reported Wednesday (July 29).

The company is also preparing for the day when financial activity is initiated by software agents, not by customers navigating applications on their own.

Robinhood’s first agentic trading product still has some bugs, but its long-term implication is greater than user experience.

“The next stage will not be decided by whether Robinhood can launch another popular feature,” the PYMNTS report said. “It will be decided by whether it can make a complex portfolio of products behave like one financial system.”