Trading 212, a disruptor in Europe’s retail brokerage sector, sold cryptocurrency-linked products in the United Kingdom without the proper authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which requires separate approval for offering such “high-risk investment products.”
Offering Crypto Products without Permission
According to a Financial Times report, the retail brokerage platform allowed traders on its platform to purchase crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) from October 2025, right after the UK regulator overturned its blanket ban on such products, which was put in place in 2021.
ETNs track the value of the underlying asset, cryptocurrency in this case, but unlike popular exchange-traded funds (ETFs), investors in these products hold a debt note linked to the price of the asset rather than a stake in the fund itself.
Trading 212, however, applied for the necessary FCA approval to offer the crypto products last week, the report stated, following regulatory officials’ intervention. It received approval on Monday.
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Notably, Trading 212 has held FCA authorisation since 2014, which allows the broker to offer financial products, including forex and contracts for difference (CFDs), but not crypto products.
A now-deleted post on Trading 212’s website mentioned a couple of weeks ago that it had “briefly paused” the offering of complex instruments, including crypto ETNs, to new customers in order to upgrade its “internal systems and onboarding flows,” the FT report highlighted.
The platform continued to advertise crypto ETNs, but during the order review stage, a message appeared stating that “we’re making improvements… we expect to be back online soon — thank you for your patience!”
The review prompt disappeared on Monday after the platform received the necessary approval.
Trading 212’s Crypto Bet
FinanceMagnates.com earlier reported that Trading 212 launched crypto trading under its Cypriot unit last October. The broker established a dedicated crypto entity in Cyprus in 2024 and also obtained a crypto asset service provider (CASP) licence from the regulator on the Mediterranean island.
As a group, Trading 212 ended 2024 with a net profit of £43.7 million on revenue of £194.1 million. Its UK operations remained its main revenue source, adding £150 million to the total figure, while the Cypriot business brought in £42.2 million despite doubling its figures within a year. Germany’s FXFlat, following its acquisition, added over £1 million.
In the UK, the broker is also moving away from CFDs towards stockbroking.
Despite the reported breach in the UK, it remains unclear whether the FCA will take any action against the retail brokerage.
