How to get a crypto license in Romania: step-by-step for 2026

Romania is emerging as a pragmatic hub for crypto businesses within the EU, offering a clear licensing path under the MiCA framework starting in 2026. Here is your step-by-step guide to obtaining a Romanian crypto license.

Why Romania for Your Crypto License?

Romania has transposed the EU's MiCA regulation into national law, creating a predictable licensing environment for crypto asset service providers (CASPs). The country offers competitive corporate tax rates (16% standard, with micro-enterprise rates as low as 1% for qualifying firms) and a growing tech talent pool. Bucharest is also a regional fintech hub with a supportive regulator, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).

Unlike some EU states that have imposed additional national requirements, Romania's implementation of MiCA is relatively straightforward. The ASF has published clear guidelines for CASP licensing, covering custody, exchange, and advisory services. For founders, this means less regulatory ambiguity and faster time to market compared to jurisdictions like Germany or France.

Step 1: Determine Your CASP Activity Class

Under MiCA, CASPs are categorized into three capital tiers based on the services they offer. The minimum capital requirements are EUR 50,000 for simple services like order execution, EUR 125,000 for exchange and custody services, and EUR 150,000 for more complex activities such as portfolio management. Your business model will dictate which tier applies.

If you plan to offer multiple services, you must meet the highest applicable capital requirement. For example, a platform combining exchange and custody would need EUR 125,000. It is essential to map your intended activities to MiCA's definitions before proceeding. Consulting with a local lawyer can help avoid misclassification.

Step 2: Incorporate a Romanian Company

To apply for a CASP license, you must first incorporate a legal entity in Romania. The most common structure is a Societate pe Acțiuni (SA) or Societate cu Răspundere Limitată (SRL). The SRL is popular for smaller operations due to lower minimum capital (EUR 1) and simpler governance. The registration process with the Trade Registry typically takes 2 to 4 weeks.

You will need a registered office address in Romania, a local bank account, and at least one director (who can be a foreign national). The company's constitutional documents should clearly state crypto asset services as the main activity. All documents must be notarized and translated into Romanian if originally in English.

Step 3: Prepare the License Application

The application to the ASF requires a detailed business plan, including financial projections, risk management policies, and AML/CTF procedures. You must also provide proof of initial capital, a description of your IT systems and security measures, and the fit and proper declarations for all directors and shareholders holding more than 10% of shares.

The ASF expects applicants to have strong governance structures. This includes a compliance officer, a risk management function, and an internal audit mechanism. For smaller firms, these roles can be outsourced to qualified third parties. The application fee is approximately EUR 2,000 to EUR 5,000, depending on the complexity of the license.

Step 4: Submit and Await Approval

Once your application is complete, submit it to the ASF along with the required fee. The regulator has up to 3 months to review the application, though this can extend to 6 months if additional information is requested. During this period, the ASF may conduct on-site inspections or interviews with key personnel.

After approval, you will receive a CASP license that is valid across the EU under the MiCA passport. However, you must remain compliant with ongoing reporting obligations, including quarterly financial reports, annual audits, and immediate notification of any material changes. Non-compliance can result in fines or license revocation.

How to Choose the Right Jurisdiction

Work the decision in this order — customers first, everything else second:

Who are your customers? EU retail means you need a MiCA passport (Lithuania, Malta or another EU CASP). US customers mean state-by-state money-transmitter licensing or a FinCEN MSB — consider a Canada MSB or a US setup. Latin America, Asia or HNW clients mean an offshore or territorial base such as Panama is usually the better fit.
Do you need a regulator badge? A public-facing exchange chasing institutional partners and fundraising often needs the reputational lift of an EU, Swiss or VARA licence. An OTC desk or token treasury usually does not.
What is your budget and timeline? Offshore and territorial routes set up in weeks for tens of thousands; premium onshore licences take many months and six figures.
What about tax? Territorial-tax jurisdictions like Panama charge 0% on foreign-source income; EU jurisdictions apply standard corporate tax. Factor total cost of ownership, not just setup fees.

For many offshore-first founders, Panama lands at the intersection of fast incorporation, low cost and 0% tax on foreign-source income, which is why it features so heavily in our work. But the honest answer is that the “best” jurisdiction is the one that matches the four answers above — and that is a conversation worth having before you spend a cent. See our cost breakdown and application process to ground the decision in real numbers.

Banking and Compliance: Where Most Setups Actually Stall

Incorporation is the easy part of any crypto project. Banking is where timelines slip and where under-prepared founders lose months. Since 2023, banks and payment processors worldwide have tightened their onboarding of crypto-adjacent businesses, and they now expect a genuinely professional application — not a one-page business summary. A thin file is simply rejected, and re-applying with the same bank is far harder than getting it right the first time.

Three documents do the heavy lifting. The first is a written AML/KYC compliance program: your customer-onboarding flow, transaction-monitoring rules, sanctions and PEP screening, a named compliance officer, and record-keeping policies. The second is a clear, evidenced source-of-funds file for both the company and its beneficial owners. The third is a coherent business description that explains who your customers are, how money moves, and what volumes you project. Banks approve businesses they understand; ambiguity reads as risk.

Sequencing matters as much as substance. The correct order is: incorporate the operating entity, build the compliance program, assemble the source-of-funds package, and only then approach banking — ideally through a warm introduction rather than a cold application. Founders who approach banks mid-setup, before their file is complete, create the very delays they are trying to avoid. We make direct introductions to banks and crypto-friendly payment rails as part of every engagement, but the introduction only works if the file behind it is ready.

None of this is optional, and none of it changes much from one jurisdiction to the next — the compliance bar is now broadly global. What changes is the appetite of local banks and the speed of onboarding. Our requirements checklist sets out exactly what you need to assemble before you approach a bank.

Crypto Licensing in 2026: The Bigger Picture

Choosing where to license a crypto business in 2026 is no longer a simple cost calculation. The regulatory map has hardened considerably over the last three years. In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has replaced the patchwork of national VASP registers with a single Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorisation that passports across all 27 member states. That passport is powerful — but it comes with capital requirements, governance obligations and a multi-month authorisation process that smaller projects often underestimate.

Outside the EU, the picture is more varied. Offshore and territorial-tax jurisdictions compete on speed, cost and privacy, while major financial centres such as Switzerland, the UAE and Singapore compete on credibility and institutional access. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) sits over all of them: its “travel rule” and AML standards now apply, in some form, almost everywhere a serious crypto business would consider basing itself. Jurisdictions that ignore FATF expectations end up grey-listed, which quietly closes correspondent-banking doors for every company registered there.

This is why the question behind How to get a is rarely “which licence is cheapest?” It is “which regime matches my customers, my risk appetite and my banking needs?” An EU-retail exchange and an offshore OTC desk serving high-net-worth clients in Latin America have almost nothing in common in terms of the right base. Getting this decision right at the start saves you from the single most expensive mistake in the industry: licensing in the wrong place and having to re-domicile a live business.

Consulting24 has guided more than 200 crypto company setups across 15+ jurisdictions since 2017, which means we have seen how each of these regimes behaves in practice rather than just on paper. The summary below is the same framework we use with clients — and we are always happy to map it to your specific model. Start with our Panama vs Lithuania comparison to see how the trade-offs play out between an offshore base and an EU-passported one.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The failures we see when founders research How to get a on their own are remarkably consistent, and almost all of them are avoidable. The first is licensing to the headline tax rate. A 0% jurisdiction is worthless if your customers legally require a regulated provider you cannot become there — you will simply have to start again. Decide who you are allowed to serve first, then optimise for tax.

The second is treating the compliance program as paperwork. The AML/KYC program is not a formality to satisfy a regulator; it is the document your bank reads most closely. A generic template downloaded from the internet is transparent to any compliance officer and will sink your banking application. It needs to reflect your actual product, customer base and risk profile.

The third is underestimating banking lead time. Founders routinely budget for incorporation and forget that the bank account — the thing that actually lets the business operate — can take longer than the licence itself. Build banking into your launch timeline from day one, not as an afterthought.

The fourth is ignoring personal tax residency. A company in a low-tax jurisdiction does not erase your obligations where you personally live. Many founders create unexpected liabilities by structuring the company perfectly and ignoring themselves. We introduce qualified tax advisors precisely to close this gap.

The fifth and most expensive is choosing a provider on price alone. The cheapest setup that results in a rejected bank application or a re-domiciliation is far more expensive than doing it properly once. Ask any provider to itemise their fee and explain their banking track record before you commit.

What Happens After You Are Licensed

Getting licensed and banked is the start, not the finish. Every regulated or registered crypto business carries ongoing obligations, and letting them lapse is how companies lose their standing — and their banking. At minimum you will maintain a registered agent or local presence, file annual renewals or supervision fees, keep accounting records, and keep your compliance program live with periodic reviews and updated sanctions and PEP screening lists.

Most jurisdictions also expect you to keep your beneficial-ownership information current and to report material changes — new directors, new shareholders, a pivot in business activity — promptly. Transaction monitoring is not a one-time setup either; screening rules need tuning as your volumes and customer mix evolve. Banks may request periodic refreshes of your KYC and source-of-funds documentation, particularly after a year of trading or a significant change in activity.

This is why we offer ongoing maintenance on an annual retainer rather than treating setup as a one-off transaction. The cost of staying compliant is a fraction of the cost of losing a banking relationship and having to rebuild one from scratch. Plan for it in your year-two budget from the outset, and treat your compliance function as a living part of the business rather than a box you ticked at launch.

It is also worth planning ahead for growth. A structure that suits a pre-revenue startup may not suit the same company once it is processing meaningful volume, adding new product lines, or expanding into new markets. Many of the businesses we work with begin in a fast, low-cost offshore base to validate the model, then add a second regulated entity — an EU CASP, for example — once revenue justifies the cost and the market access genuinely matters. Designing the first structure with that possible second step in mind keeps your options open and avoids a disruptive re-domiciliation later. We map this growth path out with clients during the initial planning stage so the early decisions support, rather than constrain, where the business is heading.

Ready to set up your How to get a?

Consulting24 has completed 200+ crypto company setups across 15+ jurisdictions. Talk to our team for a fixed-fee proposal and realistic timeline.

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Email mardo@consulting24.co · Phone +372 58155779

About Consulting24 & Mardo Soo

Mardo Soo
Founder & CEO, Consulting24 · LinkedIn

Consulting24 is an eight-year-old advisory firm that has completed 200+ crypto company setups across 15+ jurisdictions since 2017. Founder and CEO Mardo Soo and the team specialise in crypto, VASP and exchange licensing — from Panama and the EU (MiCA) to Dubai, Canada and the offshore world. We don't push a single “best” jurisdiction; we map your business to the regime that actually fits, then handle incorporation, the AML/KYC compliance program, and banking and payment-processor introductions end to end.

Every engagement begins with an honest conversation about your customers, budget and timeline and ends with a fixed-fee proposal, so you know the all-in number before you commit. We also introduce vetted local lawyers and tax advisors wherever your structure requires them.

Operated by X24Consulting OÜ (Estonian Business Register code 16971898), Põrdi tn 3-63, 10156 Tallinn, Estonia · mardo@consulting24.co · +372 58155779

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get a crypto license in Romania?

The entire process, from company incorporation to license approval, typically takes 4 to 6 months. The ASF has a statutory review period of up to 3 months, but preparation and incorporation add another 2 to 3 months.

What is the minimum capital requirement for a Romanian CASP?

It depends on your activity class: EUR 50,000 for simple services, EUR 125,000 for exchange and custody, and EUR 150,000 for complex services like portfolio management.

Can a foreign company apply for a Romanian crypto license?

Yes, but you must first incorporate a Romanian subsidiary (SRL or SA). The parent company's directors and shareholders must pass fit and proper checks.

Does the Romanian license allow passporting across the EU?

Yes, under MiCA, a CASP license from Romania is valid in all EU member states without additional licensing. You must notify the ASF of your intent to operate cross-border.

What are the ongoing compliance costs?

Expect annual costs of EUR 10,000 to EUR 30,000 for compliance, including AML officer fees, audit, and regulatory filings. Costs vary based on transaction volume and complexity.

Is it possible to get a license for a crypto exchange only?

Yes, an exchange falls under the EUR 125,000 capital tier. You must also comply with custody rules if you hold client assets.

What happens if I operate without a license?

Operating without a CASP license in Romania is illegal and can result in fines up to 5% of annual turnover or EUR 100,000, whichever is higher, plus potential criminal liability for directors.

Can I use a Romanian license to serve clients outside the EU?

Yes, the license covers services to clients globally, but you must comply with local laws in non-EU jurisdictions. The ASF does not restrict outbound services.

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This article reflects 2026 market conditions and is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Regulations change — confirm specifics with qualified counsel before acting. Consulting24 (X24Consulting OÜ, Estonian reg. 16971898) introduces vetted local lawyers and tax advisors during every engagement.

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