Which Countries Does Uphold Restrict?

Uphold maintains its exclusion list on an official Non-Supported Jurisdictions page, last refreshed in May 2026, and splits it into two tiers. The first tier of 33 locations receives no service whatsoever, while a second, much longer tier lets existing customers keep limited access but refuses every new signup.

Uphold Restricted Country List

The table below organizes both tiers by the pressure behind each restriction, because a blocked signup in Berlin, a sanctions freeze in Minsk, and a licensing standoff in Toronto stem from entirely different legal machinery, even though the login screen treats them identically.

Why Uphold Blocks These Jurisdictions

Each entry on Uphold's list traces back to a distinct legal trigger, and identifying which one applies to your country reveals whether the block is permanent.

The six pressures shaping Uphold's restriction map:

• Sanctions: The US Treasury's OFAC programs, mirrored by UK and EU regimes, force dollar-connected platforms to shut out Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Russia, and Belarus entirely.
• Canadian exit: Uphold withdrew from Canada in mid-2023 rather than sign the pre-registration undertakings that provincial securities regulators demanded, and the company has shown no intention of returning since.
• BitLicense wall: New York requires a virtual currency license Uphold never obtained, and an April 2026 $5 million Attorney General settlement over CredEarn reinforced that separation.
• Domestic bans: Central bank prohibitions in China, Algeria, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Morocco criminalize or heavily restrict exchange activity, so Uphold refuses new registrations rather than breach local law.
• Licensing economics: Japan's FSA registration, South Korea's ISMS regime, and Mexico's fintech law each demand local entities and capital, costs Uphold has chosen not to absorb for onboarding.
• Conflict screening: FATF-standard risk checks cannot run reliably in territories like Crimea, Yemen, Somalia, and Haiti, so accounts from these regions fail compliance review regardless of individual circumstances.

Uphold Supported Countries

Outside its restriction tiers, Uphold serves roughly 140 countries, with its deepest footprint in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and much of Latin America. Supported users can trade over 300 cryptocurrencies, 27 fiat currencies, and four precious metals through the platform's signature Anything-to-Anything engine, which swaps directly between asset classes.

Traffic data sharpens that picture considerably. Similarweb's June 2026 figures put the United States at 59.93% of visits to uphold.com, followed by the United Kingdom at 4.54%, Venezuela at 2.18%, Colombia at 1.35%, and France at 1.33%, with the remaining 30.67% spread thinly across every other market.

The product stack has widened considerably through 2025 and 2026. Staking now covers 20+ proof-of-stake assets, the Uphold Vault provides assisted self-custody with key recovery, an Auto-Invest feature routes portions of direct-deposit paychecks into digital assets, and US cardholders earn XRP bonuses on debit spending through the platform's Ripple-aligned rewards program.

That XRP orientation is no accident. Uphold has positioned itself as the retail home for the XRP community, ranking among the largest venues for the token globally, and it distributed Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin at launch. Availability of individual features still varies by country, so coverage of your region does not guarantee every product works there.

Can I Use Uphold in the US?

Yes, in every state except New York, though the outlying territories fall away too, since Puerto Rico and Guam refuse new accounts while the US Virgin Islands is fully blocked. Uphold holds a FinCEN Money Services Business registration and state-level money transmitter licenses under NMLS ID 1269875.

The New York carve-out has deepened rather than eased. Beyond the BitLicense barrier, the Attorney General's CredEarn settlement obliges Uphold to register as a broker and tighten third-party product vetting, making a consumer relaunch unlikely soon. New Yorkers comparing regulated alternatives can start with our ranking of the best crypto exchanges in the USA.

Is Uphold Available in Europe and the UK?

The UK remains one of Uphold's strongest markets. Uphold Europe Limited is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the UK's cryptoasset regime, and the Uphold Card, a Mastercard issued through FCA-authorised Optimus Cards UK Limited, lets British users spend crypto, fiat, and metals balances directly at the point of sale.

The EEA picture changed sharply on July 1, 2026. Uphold Digital Assets Europe, the group's Portuguese entity supervised by the Bank of Portugal and CMVM, saw its MiCA transition window close while its CASP application remained under review, forcing a temporary pause on all crypto and fiat deposits for European customers.

Existing EEA users can still withdraw assets at any time, though fiat exits are limited to previously linked bank accounts until authorization lands. Germany and the Netherlands were already closed to new signups well before the deadline. Europeans wanting a fully MiCA-authorized venue today can compare the best crypto exchanges in Europe.

Can I Use Uphold in Canada?

No. Canada sits on the fully blocked tier, a position unchanged since Uphold wound down Canadian operations in July 2023 after the Canadian Securities Administrators required crypto platforms to sign restrictive pre-registration undertakings. Uphold Operating Canada Ltd withdrew its registration applications instead of accepting the leverage and stablecoin conditions those undertakings imposed.

The block runs deeper than account creation. Uphold's inter-account transfer rules prohibit sending or receiving Canadian dollars entirely, and fiat-to-fiat transfers between US and non-US accounts remain barred platform-wide. Canadians seeking CSA-registered platforms should review our guide to the best crypto exchanges in Canada.

Does Uphold Require KYC?

Yes, without exception. Unlike offshore venues that let unverified accounts trade within capped limits, Uphold gates every function behind identity verification at signup. New customers submit a government-issued photo ID and a live selfie, with proof of residential address requested in certain jurisdictions before deposits unlock.

Verification is also not a one-time event. Uphold runs periodic KYC reviews that can request updated employment details, source-of-funds evidence, or fresh address documents, and unanswered requests lead to account restriction or closure. Nationality matters as much as location: documents issued by a fully blocked country fail verification regardless of where the applicant currently lives.

This structure means VPN workarounds accomplish little. A masked IP address might load the signup page, but the document check catches restricted-country identity papers immediately, and residency discovered later gives Uphold contractual grounds to freeze balances while it investigates, a risk that rarely justifies the access gained.

Uphold Licensing and Regulation

Uphold's regulatory footprint mixes genuine operating licenses with lighter compliance registrations, and knowing which is which tells you exactly what protection actually stands behind your account.

Where Uphold currently holds authorizations and registrations:

• United States: Uphold HQ Inc. is a FinCEN-registered Money Services Business holding state money transmitter licenses under NMLS ID 1269875, without federal securities authorization.
• New York: The April 2026 Attorney General settlement compels broker registration with the OAG, an obligation governing Uphold's conduct rather than granting consumer market access.
• United Kingdom: Uphold Europe Limited operates as an EMD agent (FRN 938277) of Optimus Cards UK Limited, an FCA-authorised e-money institution under FRN 902034.
• European Union: Uphold Digital Assets Europe, a Braga-registered entity, sits under Bank of Portugal and CMVM supervision, with its MiCA CASP status under active review.
• Security certifications: Independently audited SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS attestations cover information security, operational controls, and card payment processing across Uphold's infrastructure.
• Reserve transparency: Uphold publishes assets and liabilities in near real time, holds reserves exceeding customer obligations, and commits contractually to never lending out customer holdings.

About Uphold

Uphold began life as Bitreserve in 2013 before rebranding in 2015, and today serves more than 10 million registered users across its supported markets. Revenue has scaled from roughly $80 million in 2022 to beyond $300 million annually, driven by retail trading, the enterprise business powering partners like Brave and IG Group, and card interchange.

The company has spent 2025 and 2026 preparing for a liquidity event, with its board appointing FT Partners to weigh a US listing or trade sale at a valuation above $1.5 billion. Recent launches include tokenized bank deposit pilots, the Auto-Invest paycheck feature, and deeper XRP Ledger integrations aimed at its core community.

Final Thoughts

Uphold's map rewards a careful read. The fully blocked tier is small and mostly predictable, but the onboarding freeze quietly covers economies as large as Germany, Japan, India, and Mexico, so a country missing from the headline banned list is no guarantee that a new account will open.

The regulatory story is genuinely mixed right now. Strong US state licensing and UK registration sit alongside a pending MiCA application that has paused European deposits and a New York settlement that reshaped its compliance obligations, all while the company courts an IPO or acquisition.

Anyone in a grey-zone country should treat Uphold's official jurisdictions page as the final word before funding an account, and existing EEA customers should watch the MiCA decision closely, since it will determine whether European service resumes in full or winds down further.