Crypto licences compared: six regimes, their fees and registers

Crypto licences now have their own section on the site covering six regimes: MiCA, VARA in Dubai, CySEC in Cyprus, Diia City in Ukraine, AFSA and the National Bank in Kazakhstan, and FSCA in South Africa. Each page carries the capital requirement, the fee table, the statutory timeline, the application steps and a dated check.

“Registers across the six regimes hold 789 permissions between them”

— Intokened, Раздел лицензий, проверено 8–9 октября 2026

South Africa publishes the only full funnel

FSCA has taken 533 applications since 1 June 2023 and, to 31 March 2026, approved 310. It refused 17 and saw 124 withdrawn after its questions. That is a 58.2% approval rate, 3.2% refused and 23.3% pulled by the applicants themselves.

No other regime in the set publishes refusals and withdrawals separately. The withdrawal number is the interesting one, because a firm that walks away once a regulator starts asking is not visible in any approval statistic.

Kazakhstan costs $289 or $98,000 depending on the address

Outside the Astana financial centre the state fee is 129,750 tenge, about $289, with capital of 50 million tenge. Inside the AIFC an exchange permit runs $98,000 once, $30,000 a year in supervision and $200,000 of capital.

That is a 339-fold difference in entry cost inside one country, decided by which of the two regimes an applicant picks.

Cyprus, MiCA and Dubai by the numbers

CySEC charges €10,000 to apply, roughly $11,200, with capital of €50,000, €125,000 or €150,000 by class and a statutory 25 plus 40 working days. MiCA uses the same three capital classes across 27 national authorities and has produced 361 authorisations on 30 markets, an average of 12 per market, with its transition period closed.

VARA charges 40,000 to 100,000 dirhams to apply, $10,900 to $27,200, then 80,000 to 200,000 a year in supervision, with 50,000 added for each further activity out of eight. Its register holds 57.

Diia City is not a crypto licence

Ukraine's regime gives 5% personal income tax, a 5% military levy, a social contribution calculated from the minimum wage rather than the salary, and a choice between 9% on withdrawn capital and 18% on profit. It had 4,685 residents at the last check.

Diia City is a tax and labour regime for IT companies. A crypto licence is a separate thing Ukraine does not yet issue, and the page says so.

What the section is for

Every figure carries a checked date, and the pages sit under regulation rather than in the news feed, because fee tables change and headlines never get updated. The Thailand rules we covered this morning take effect on 16 October, and that is the kind of change these pages are built to absorb.

Informational material, not legal advice. Every figure carries the date it was checked, and fees and registers change without notice.