UK residents rejoice! Coinbase has been granted an e-money license by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This essentially means that Coinbase is now able to provide payment services in the UK. In other words, the UK will soon be able to deposit and withdraw in GBP to Coinbase! No more jumping through Revolut to get your funds into Coinbase.
To put the cherry on the cake, Coinbase will also be gradually rolling out support for UK Faster Payments. Once rolled out, you’ll probably be able to credit your Coinbase account in less than 15 minutes with a UK bank transfer.
With the issue of this e-money license, Coinbase will soon be required to segregate client and business GBP funds. The idea behind this is that if Coinbase goes up in flames, then your funds won’t disappear into the void. This still doesn’t mean our fiat (e.g., GBP) balances on Coinbase are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Schemes (FSCS). It’s a step in the right direction I guess.
If you’re not already aware, Coinbase does hold insurance for cryptocurrencies which are held online (i.e., in hot wallets). They say that’s about 2% of total funds, with the rest held in offline storage (e.g., cold storage). If they suffer a breach, then you’d be covered. This insurance does not apply in the event that you’ve been negligent with your security though. To make sure you’re keeping your computer, accounts, and cryptocurrency secure, check out:
Not already signed up to Coinbase? Check out this post.
Already published on quickpenguin.net
