Blockchain.com has re-entered the UK market with a fresh regulatory green light, securing registration with the UK Financial Conduct Authority on February 10, 2026 to offer regulated brokerage, custody, and institutional crypto services. This registration positions the firm as an FCA-supervised operator in the UK again, which materially changes how institutional clients can evaluate onboarding, controls, and accountability.
The milestone also closes a loop that has been open since 2022. Blockchain.com said it previously withdrew its FCA application in March 2022 after it could not secure approval ahead of the FCA’s anti-money-laundering deadline of March 31, 2022, and it redirected market-access efforts to other jurisdictions. By returning with an FCA registration dated February 10, 2026, the company is effectively reversing a 2022 retreat that was driven by timing and compliance readiness under the AML gateway.
FCA registration and what it enables in the UK
Under the registration described in the company’s statement, Blockchain.com can provide regulated brokerage and custody products for UK clients, with an institutional services posture that aligns to supervisory expectations. In practical terms, the registration translates into a regulated UK operating perimeter for brokerage and custody, rather than an informal presence or a purely offshore servicing model.
That perimeter also comes with explicit operational responsibilities. The text frames the FCA relationship as direct supervisory accountability across anti-money-laundering controls, client asset segregation, and mandatory reporting obligations. The strategic significance is less about launching a new feature set and more about anchoring service delivery to a recognized supervisory framework with defined compliance duties.
A dual-regulatory footprint and the next authorization milestone
Blockchain.com’s UK re-entry sits alongside its broader regulatory positioning in Europe. The company indicates it obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorization in the European Union in 2025, supporting EEA passporting of services, and it previously pursued registrations in Lithuania, Ireland, and the United States, while also pursuing approval in Germany. Taken together, the UK FCA registration plus MiCA authorization creates a two-track governance reality that institutional clients will need to map into risk ownership, reporting lines, and oversight routines.
From an institutional operating model perspective, the immediate work is coordination: custody arrangements, control reporting, and compliance evidence need to be consistent across the UK and EEA footprints described in the text. The operational priority for treasuries and compliance teams is to reconcile custody segregation and reporting workflows so they satisfy UK mandatory reporting expectations while also aligning with the EEA passporting posture supported by MiCA.
Blockchain.com also signaled this is not the end state. The text says the company intends to apply for full authorization later in 2026 to align with the UK’s permanent cryptoasset regime planned for implementation in 2027, and it anticipates broader supervisory expectations as that transition approaches. If the firm proceeds toward full authorization later in 2026, counterparties should expect tighter operational-risk oversight and potentially evolving capital and governance requirements as the UK regime matures toward 2027 implementation.
Ultimately, the message here is positioning and assurance rather than novelty: the FCA registration represents a regulated re-entry, and the burden shifts to verification and ongoing oversight. For market participants, the most bankable takeaway is that due diligence should now focus on validating custody segregation, AML documentation, and reporting workflows against the FCA-registered operating model and its future full-authorization trajectory.