Robinhood secures UK crypto license, but faces stiff competition. After a series of false starts that must have left British investors feeling somewhat jilted, Robinhood has finally secured the much-coveted FCA approval to offer crypto services in the country. Crypto market analysis This entry onto the official registry, finalised on July 31, marks a significant milestone for a company that has spent years hovering at the edge of the British market. During a London keynote address titled "The World is Flat", the firm teased the arrival of its digital asset services to an audience that has grown weary of waiting. The UK's crypto registry is a rather short list of some fifty companies that includes brokers eToro and Interactive Brokers. Robinhood Faces Strong Competition The journey to this point has been arduous. In 2020, Robinhood dramatically abandoned its initial British launch, leaving a 250,000-strong waitlist in the lurch to focus on its domestic troubles. A later attempt to acquire the crypto platform Ziglu in 2022 also collapsed, adding to the sense of a stalled crusade. It was only in 2023 that the firm made its formal debut, complete with a statue of its legendary namesake in London's financial district. Discover more Bitcoin trading platform Financial news subscription Crypto mining hardware It also tapped Jordan Sinclair, a former executive at Freetrade, to spearhead its operations in the UK. While the US powerhouse has the marketing muscle and low-fee positioning to immediately pressure local players on price, product and customer acquisition, its brand does not have household status in the UK, where it faces stiff competition from mainstays like Revolut. It also remains to be seen how much the product rollout asymmetry will hurt its efforts to capture market share. A Regulatory Olive Branch Robinhood's timely registration precedes a critical five-month window starting this September, during which firms must lodge their license applications with the FCA to comply with the impending 2027 framework. The new framework will introduce strict market integrity standards and tailored rules for stablecoins. In a notable pivot that suggests a newfound sensitivity to industry sentiment, the UK regulator has dramatically scaled back its proposed stablecoin mandates, slashing the anticipated capital buffer requirements from 2% to 1%. Digital Currencies The concession comes on the heels of persistent criticism from market participants, prompting David Geale, who oversees payments and digital finance at the FCA, to admit that the initial thresholds were perhaps overly punitive for the burgeoning sector. In addition to easing these financial constraints, the FCA has demonstrated further flexibility by relaxing its previously rigid positions on asset redemption windows and transparency requirements.

DriveWealth named to CNBC World's Top FinTech Companies 2026 list. * July 22, 2026 * Press Releases Financial technology platform recognized for a third consecutive year, reflecting its continued global growth and innovation NEW YORK- July 22, 2026 - DriveWealth, a global B2B Brokerage-as-a-Service platform designed to make investing easier for partners and their customers, was recognized on the fourth edition of CNBC's "World's Top FinTech Companies 2026" list released today. The award is presented by CNBC and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider, and recognizes DriveWealth for its global efforts to deliver innovative investing and financial services solutions to banks, brokerages, and fintechs, and their customers around the world. "Being named to CNBC's World's Top FinTech Companies list for a third consecutive year reflects DriveWealth's accelerated growth and continued commitment to power the future of global investing," said Naureen Hassan, CEO at DriveWealth. "This recognition comes at a pivotal moment, following our participation in DTCC's landmark tokenization initiative this month. It's proof that the newest capabilities in the market can be delivered with the same institutional rigor and platform stability our clients have counted on for years. We're proud to keep scaling innovation on behalf of our clients and the millions of investors they serve." The World's Top FinTech Companies list recognizes 250 companies across eight different market segments: Payments, Neobanking, Alternative Financing, Wealth Technology, Digital Assets, Enterprise Fintech, Insurtech, and Regtech. The segment-specific metrics were derived from publicly available data, including annual reports, company websites, and media monitoring across more than 2,000 companies. Over the past year, DriveWealth has significantly broadened its product suite with the addition of Alternative Asset Funds, Business Accounts for corporate entities, and an enhanced Fully Paid Securities Lending program, while bolstering consumer protection through excess SIPC insurance covering up to $50 million per account and excess FDIC insurance covering up to $1 million per customer. The company also expanded its global footprint, supporting an average of more than 6 million trades per day for its B2B partners worldwide and bringing U.S. equities investing to consumers in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Turkey through new client relationships. DriveWealth clients Acorns, C6 Bank, Chipper Cash, Freetrade, Inter, Moneybox, MoneyLion, OnePay, Revolut, Step, and Uala were also recognized in CNBC's "World's Top FinTech Companies 2026" list. About DriveWealth DriveWealth is a global B2B financial technology platform. Its core business is providing Brokerage-as-a-Service, powering the investing and trading experiences for digital wallets, broker dealers, asset managers, and consumer brands. DriveWealth's APIs provide its partners with a modern, extensible and flexible toolkit to develop everything from traditional investment workflows to more innovative techniques like rounding up purchases into fractional share ownership. DriveWealth, LLC is a registered broker dealer, member of FINRA and SIPC. Visit legal.drivewealth.com for full disclosures. For more information, visit www.drivewealth.com. Discover more. * Jun 2026 * Press Releases * Apr 2026 * Press Releases * Mar 2026 * Press Releases Ready to get started? Connect with DriveWealth Holdings, Inc. and let's discuss how to empower your clients with modern, innovative products and solutions. Take control of your business using its Client dashboard to manage many of the "back office" investing functions.

IG Group acquired investment app Freetrade for £160 million, while Worldpay purchased fraud detection platform Ravelin.