What a MiCA licence costs in Cyprus

CySEC charges an application fee for each crypto-asset service you apply for, from €5,000 to €30,000, and the fees add up: applying for all ten services costs €95,000. Once authorised, you pay an annual supervision fee per service (€76,000 a year for all ten) plus a percentage of crypto-service revenue above €500,000, capped at €500,000 in total. Separately, MiCA requires minimum capital of €50,000, €125,000 or €150,000 depending on your services, or a quarter of last year's fixed overheads if that is higher. Professional fees for preparing the application are on top and vary with scope.

MiCA caps the regulator's working time, not the whole process. CySEC has 25 working days to decide whether the file is complete and 40 working days to assess a complete file, can pause the assessment once for up to 20 working days to ask for more information, and notifies its decision within 5 working days. Added together that is about 90 working days, roughly four months. The time an applicant takes to fill gaps is not capped, which is why incomplete files take far longer. CySEC publishes no estimate of its own.

MiCA Article 67 requires the higher of two amounts: a fixed minimum by class (€50,000 for advice, execution, placing, transfer, order transmission and portfolio management; €125,000 if you also provide custody or exchange; €150,000 if you operate a trading platform) or one quarter of the previous year’s fixed overheads. A new firm uses its projected fixed overheads for its first 12 months. The requirement can be met with own funds, an insurance policy or comparable guarantee, or a mix of the two.

Yes. Each authorised service carries a fixed annual fee, from €5,000 to €20,000, and crypto-service revenue above €500,000 attracts a variable charge of between 1% and 0.1% depending on the band, with the total annual fee capped at €500,000. Revenue means gross revenue from crypto-asset services under the binding Greek text of the directive. The fee is payable within four months of the end of the financial year, and in the first year it is charged pro rata from the month services begin.

Several, though the law sets no price for them. The application must attach certifications from the applicant’s external auditors and legal advisers. Audited annual financial statements are needed for the turnover-based fee and the fixed-overheads capital test. MiCA requires a registered office and effective management in the EU with at least one EU-resident director, staff with the necessary skills, and client funds placed with a credit institution or central bank by the end of the next business day. Cyprus AML law requires a senior manager appointed as money laundering compliance officer.

For services equivalent to its existing investment services, yes. Under MiCA Article 60 an investment firm can notify CySEC at least 40 working days before it starts, instead of applying for a separate CASP authorisation, so the per-service CASP application fees above do not apply. A separate €5,000 charge for investment firms extending into crypto, under CySEC’s investment firm fee rules, was proposed for deletion in January 2026, so check whether it still applies when you file. The route is limited to the crypto equivalents of what the firm is already authorised for; anything beyond that needs the full application.