Crypto Licensing

A cryptocurrency license authorizes your business to legally operate crypto exchanges, wallet services, custody solutions, and digital asset trading platforms in regulated jurisdictions worldwide. A crypto license is now often the difference between holding a working bank account and being turned away, between onboarding institutional clients and staying stuck with retail-only volume, and between surviving a regulator's crackdown and being shut down.

Legarithm supports crypto license applications across three distinct regulatory tracks, each suited to a different business profile:

EU passportable licensing (MiCA/CASP). Since the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation became fully applicable, a single Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorisation obtained in one member state can be passported across the whole EU — no separate license per country. We support applications in Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Spain, the jurisdictions our clients most often choose for cost, regulator experience, or an existing corporate presence. Across all of them, MiCA sets the same bar: fit-and-proper management, capital appropriate to the services offered, AML/CFT and custody controls, and genuine local substance — a "letterbox" entity will not pass authorisation.

Established national VASP/registration regimes. Outside the EU, several jurisdictions run their own long-standing crypto-specific licensing frameworks rather than an EU-style passport: the UK (FCA registration under the Money Laundering Regulations), Switzerland (FINMA, via SRO membership or a banking licence depending on the activity), the UAE (VARA in Dubai), Singapore (MAS, under the Payment Services Act), Hong Kong (SFC's VASP regime), and Canada (provincial securities/MSB registration). These give strong institutional credibility and banking access, at the cost of a more demanding — and usually slower — application.

Lighter-touch and offshore registrations. For earlier-stage projects or businesses that don't need EU/UK-grade substance yet, we also support registration in Seychelles, Georgia, Gibraltar, and Panama — faster to obtain and lower cost, though generally weaker for opening tier-1 banking relationships than a MiCA or FCA licence.

Which track makes sense depends on where your users are, which banks and payment partners you need to work with, and how much regulatory substance your business can realistically build. We help clients make that call before committing to an application, not after.

How a crypto license application works, in outline: entity formation or re-domiciliation in the chosen jurisdiction, drafting AML/KYC and risk-management policies, appointing a compliance officer and (where required) a local director, submitting the regulatory application with a business plan and beneficial-ownership disclosure, responding to regulator queries, and — once authorised — meeting ongoing reporting and capital-maintenance obligations. Timelines and costs vary sharply by jurisdiction and are covered on each country's own page below; this hub page exists to help you choose the right regime, not to repeat every country's specifics.

What we handle end-to-end: jurisdiction selection, corporate structuring, AML/KYC policy drafting, the regulatory application itself, and ongoing compliance support once you're licensed — one point of contact instead of juggling a local lawyer, a compliance consultant, and a corporate-service provider separately.