The UK Financial Conduct Authority has issued its first full cryptoasset licences under the authorisation gateway that opened on 30 June, moving a small group of firms off the temporary registration regime and onto a standing permission to serve UK customers. The names published on the FCA register this week are a mix of established payment firms and UK-incorporated exchanges that had already completed the pre-application meetings the regulator ran through the spring.
The gateway itself was the subject of our 30 June report. Until this week, every firm still operating in the UK did so under the older money-laundering registration, a stopgap that the FCA has said will close on a published timetable. Full authorisation brings conduct rules, safeguarding standards, and a clearer perimeter for what a firm may market to retail clients.
Why Only a Handful Made the First Cut
The FCA has been blunt that incomplete applications will be returned, not nursed through. Firms that used the pre-application meeting programme were told to arrive with a mapped safeguarding model, a retail promotions policy that survives the financial-promotions regime, and a wind-down plan that does not assume a fire sale of customer assets. Those that could not produce that package have stayed in the queue or withdrawn.
Industry lawyers describe the first licences as a signal, not a flood. Dozens of applications remain pending. Several well-known offshore platforms that serve UK users through a local entity have not yet been authorised, which leaves a two-tier market: a short list of fully licensed names, and a longer list still operating under temporary cover.
How This Sits Next to GENIUS and MiCA
The UK is now issuing licences just as the United States opens comments on who may sell a payment stablecoin, covered in our GENIUS Act comment roundup, and as the EU tightens MiCA stablecoin limits. For a three-jurisdiction comparison, see GENIUS, MiCA, and FCA convergence. For UK consumers, the practical test is simpler: check the FCA register before sending funds, and treat any platform that cannot show a full licence as still in transition.
For country-specific context, see our UK FCA regulation guide and best FCA-regulated exchanges for 2026.