Trading 212 Breached FCA Rules, Selling Crypto ETNs Without License for Months
The UK broker allowed retail clients to trade restricted crypto derivatives for months before securing the necessary FCA permissions this week.
Trading 212, one of the UK’s largest retail brokerages, facilitated the sale of cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes (ETNs) to retail clients for months without the required Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) permissions.
The lapse, which went uncorrected until this week, meant the platform’s 4.5 million funded accounts were accessing high-risk crypto derivatives that the firm was not legally authorized to sell. While the FCA lifted its ban on retail access to crypto ETNs in October 2025, firms must hold specific permissions, specifically for “debentures”, to offer them. Trading 212 only secured this approval on Monday, January 26, 2026, after months of active trading.
“The company offered crypto ETNs to retail clients without the required authorization until Monday.”
The Compliance Gap
Competitors like Interactive Investor and Fidelity began offering these products immediately after the ban was lifted in October, having secured the necessary regulatory clearance beforehand. Trading 212 appears to have bypassed this step, allowing users to trade instruments classified as “restricted mass market investments” (RMMIs) without the requisite oversight.
RMMIs are subject to stringent consumer protection rules, including 24-hour cooling-off periods, risk warnings, and suitability checks. By operating without the specific “debentures” permission, Trading 212 may have side-stepped the regulatory framework designed to protect retail users from the volatility of assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The breach was quietly patched earlier this month when the platform paused access to the products. In a now-deleted website post, the firm claimed it had “briefly paused” access to “complex instruments” to “upgrade internal systems”. A statement that now appears to have masked a frantic regulatory cleanup. As of Monday, the FCA register confirms Trading 212 finally holds the correct permissions.
Regulatory Exposure
This failure leaves Trading 212 vulnerable to FCA enforcement action. The regulator has taken an aggressive stance on crypto compliance, and selling regulated instruments without authorization is a “strict liability” offense in the UK, meaning intent does not need to be proven, only the fact of the breach.
For a platform that built its brand on democratizing access to finance, operating in a regulatory grey zone with high-risk derivatives undermines its claim to institutional-grade compliance.
