Cryptocurrency in Lithuania: 2,500 euros free, then the income scale
In short. Lithuania leaves the first 2,500 euros of your crypto gain untaxed each year, which is the most generous threshold among its Baltic neighbours. Past that line the rate depends on everything else you earned: 15% at the bottom of the 2026 scale, rising through 20% and 25% as your total income climbs. Swapping one coin for another counts as a sale, valued in euros on the day.
- FREE EACH YEAR
- 2,500 €on gains from crypto and other property
- FIRST BAND
- 15%on income up to 12 average wages
- NEXT BAND
- 20%up to 36 average wages
- HIGHER BANDS
- 25-32%above 36 average wages
- COIN FOR COIN
- Taxablevalued in euros at the moment of the swap
- DECLARING
- Form GPM311by 1 May of the following year
The 2,500 euro threshold
Lithuania treats crypto as other property, and gains on other property carry an annual allowance: the first 2,500 euros of profit in a year meet no tax at all.
That covers a lot of ordinary investors. Sell at a 2,000 euro gain and there is nothing to pay, though the disposal still belongs on your return. Estonia gives no such allowance and taxes from the first euro, Latvia taxes from the first euro as well, so the threshold is the clearest advantage Lithuania offers a private holder.
Above the line the rate is not fixed. Lithuania reworked its income scale for 2026, and crypto gains stack with everything else you earned: 15% up to twelve average wages, 20% up to thirty-six, and higher bands beyond. Two people with identical trading profits can pay different rates because one of them also has a salary.
Swaps are sales
Exchanging one crypto for another is a disposal. The proceeds are the euro market value of what you received at the moment of the exchange.
Moving from bitcoin into a stablecoin during a fall produces a taxable event even though nothing left for a bank account. Count those swaps into the 2,500 euro allowance along with everything else, because the allowance applies to the year's net result rather than to each trade.
You report it on form GPM311 through the tax authority's electronic system, by 1 May of the year after the one you are reporting.
From hundreds of registrations to six licences
For years Lithuania ran the most accessible crypto registration in the union. A company took days to set up, the capital requirement was modest, and the register grew into the hundreds.
MiCA closed that route. Since 1 January 2026 a provider needs a licence from the Bank of Lithuania, and the capital requirement depends on what it does: 50,000 euros for advice, order execution and portfolio management, 125,000 for custody and exchange, 150,000 to run a trading platform. Offering services without that licence counts as illegal financial activity.
Six providers made it through. The gap between that number and the old register is the point of the exercise: the regime was rebuilt to keep fewer firms under closer supervision.
What the central bank built before the rules
The Bank of Lithuania spent the years before MiCA experimenting rather than warning.
On 23 July 2020 it issued LBCOIN, the first digital collector coin any central bank had produced. Twenty-four thousand tokens on a private NEM blockchain carried portraits of the twenty signatories of the 1918 Act of Independence, sold in sets of six at 99 euros, each set paired with a silver coin shaped like a credit card.
The point was not the coin. The bank ran it to put its own staff and local firms through a blockchain project, four years before it had to supervise one.
Allowed
- Take 2,500 euros of crypto gains a year with no tax
- Hold crypto without a tax event, since the charge comes on disposal
- Use any provider authorised under MiCA anywhere in the EU
- Deduct your acquisition cost from the sale proceeds
Restricted
- Treating a coin-for-coin swap as untaxed: it is a sale at market value
- Expecting one flat rate, since the band depends on your total income
- Operating as a provider without a Bank of Lithuania licence, since 1 January 2026
- Carrying the 2,500 euro allowance into another year if you do not use it
How the rules took shape
The Bank of Lithuania issues LBCOIN, the first digital collector coin from a central bank.
Lithuania tightens its registration regime, raising capital and staffing requirements for crypto firms.
The EU crypto rules take effect, with the Bank of Lithuania as supervisor.
The transition closes; from January a licence is required to serve clients.
A reworked income scale changes what crypto gains cost above the allowance.
Worth knowing
On 23 July 2020 the Bank of Lithuania issued LBCOIN, the world's first digital collector coin from a central bank: 24,000 blockchain tokens carrying the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence, sold in sets of six with a credit-card-shaped silver coin for 99 euros.
Common questions
How much can I earn tax free?
2,500 euros of gains a year from crypto and other property.
What rate applies above that?
It follows the 2026 income scale: 15% in the first band, then 20% and 25% as your total income rises.
Is a crypto-to-crypto swap taxable?
Yes. It counts as a sale, valued in euros at the moment of the exchange.
Which form do I file?
GPM311, through the tax authority's electronic system, by 1 May of the following year.
Why are there so few licensed firms now?
The old registration regime let hundreds of companies in. MiCA replaced it with a licence requiring 50,000 to 150,000 euros of capital, and six providers came through.
Sources
Other countries
Updated 08.10.2026 · this is reference material, not investment or tax advice