LITHUANIAN CRYPTO ASSET PROVIDERS & WALLET CUSTODY OPERATOR 

CRYPTO REGULATED COMPANY

 

Here are the Lithuanian requirements for a setup of a regulated VASP:

1. an experienced Director in the finance industry, but not a local;

2. Compliance person who from 01.11.2022 has to be a local Lithuanian resident;

3. Minimum formal share capital of EUR 125'000 in form of an Equity;

4. A clean criminal record from key persons in the Lithuanian company (UBO's, shareholders, board members and Director);

5. No relations to countries listed in the https://www.sanctionsmap.eu/#/main

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THE BENEFITS OF HAVING A CRYPTO COMPANY IN LITHUANIA​

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1. Does not require a local physical office unless needed to register a VAT number or for your banking partners;

2. Lithuania holds an authorized company in the public status, this is a link based on the Company Registry and with an official appointment of the MLRO to the regulator;

3. Lithuanian authorization is published via https://www.registrucentras.lt/jar/sarasai/vvko.php

4. Lithuania can apostille the respective proof of authorization in one company registry extract;

5. A Lithuanian State grants the authorization within just 3-5 business days (in case of deficiencies it takes up to 20 business days for the Commercial Registry to provide feedback for the refused action);

6. Lithuania's average salary in LOWER in the accounting and compliance area by approximately 10-30% than that of Estonia, Poland and 30-40% lower than in Central Europe;

In summary, Crypto companies conduct their business from Lithuania for a number of the following reasons: 
 
1. Remote management of the company and easy appointment process.
The owner of the company can start and manage the company from abroad.
 
2. Transparent tax system. 
According to the Law on Corporate Income Tax "Virtual currency" is a means of payment for goods and services. While virtual currency is considered the same as FIAT currency from a VAT perspective. 

3. Easy to comply with requirements thus hosting some major players domestically.
Lithuania hosts big exchanges such as BINANCE, KUCOIN, HUOBI, NEXO, PHEMEX, CEX.io, ROBINHOOD, etc. around 50 large, 200 medium size and some 300+ small size exchanges.
 
4. For those who are able to visit, Lithuania it is worthwhile to consider e-Residency, which is similar to that of the e-residency card in Estonia and allows you to manage company decisions/sign documents digitally. 
 

More about the Lithuanian crypto license/authorization and its regulating law.

Direct regulators article for Virtual currency exchanges.

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THE COST

To authorize Lithuanian company for crypto exchange and wallet operations activity

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On the procedural side to acquire the "crypto license in Lithuania" we represent your company at the regulator, prepare application forms, do the UBO structure review, and prepare and or amend the AML rules in accordance with the Lithuanian legislation. This process with our advisory will cost from €3900.

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REGARDING THE BANKS

Comparison

 

Lithuania with its financial infrastructure can provide solutions with the same country IBAN due to more than a dozen of fintechs operating with crypto-related projects. Furthermore, in Lithuania during the registration process, we will advise and assist in opening a bank account, first, a temporary account for share (equity) capital and then convert it into a regular current account for administrative/operational use. The account can be used for various non-crypto purposes including a collection of equity investments, profits from other company-owned bank accounts, etc.

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We can advise and help on applications with acquiring providers, SEPA, SEPA instant, EUR SWIFT, GBP’s, USD (ACH) domestic, white-label, and wire transactions each separately to their respective payment solution providers and classic banks. It takes about 2 weeks, minimum, to open one such bank account, and from our experience at least 1-2 weeks of time to collect appropriate KYC before handing in an application form.

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One operational/business account costs from €800.

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What if I have staking, digital asset trade, NFT, and or ICO platform?

 

Lithuanian crypto license does not regulate the abovementioned under one company and or platform. We would require a second company that has Authorization of Financial Brokerage firm or Authorization of Electronic Money Institutions. Inquire us for more in-depth details or upon your request we can supply a respective legal opinion regarding each of the activities with the help of our business partners.

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LIST OF OTHER LICENSES

That we can mediate swiftly along with internal and external license requirements

 

CROWDFUNDING LICENSE​

The crowdfunding regulations also allow it to operate within the Crypto industry, which makes it a very attractive structure to many already established crypto exchanges. Furthermore, European Union has the Central regulation for Crowdfunds, thus passporting from Lithuania to other EU member states is a great advantage. The Legal fee to advise through the application process is starting from €25 500. More about the capital requirements, etc. Read here. The timeline to establish is approx. 3-4 months. While 6-7 months for crypto-related projects, taking from the experience.

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CONSUMER CREDIT INTERMEDIARY

Legal fee from €8350. More about the license requirements Read here. The timeline to establish is approx. 7-14 business days.

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CURRENCY EXCHANGE OPERATOR

Legal fee from €12500. More about the license requirements Read here. The timeline to establish is approx. 4 weeks.

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LITHUANIAN EMI LICENSE

Legal fee from €35 400. More about the license requirements Read here. The timeline to establish is approx. 6-9 months.

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SPECIALIZED BANK

Legal fee from €80 000. More about the license requirements Read here. The timeline to establish is approx. 14 months.

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Note

KYC requirements must be passed by each of our customers without exception. For this purpose, we will ask you to share with ALT Accounting MB - a copy of the passport and proof of address from both the Ultimate Beneficial owner(s) and Director(s), and to pass ID liveliness verification.