Topic: crypto trading business without a license - page 2. (Read 343 times)

Hmmm. Why not apply for a license before officially rolling out your crypto platform? I mean it is hard to apply for a license in the first place? You wouldn't want to risk everything so it would be better if you will get a license first so that you will have no doubts running your business, just saying. Best of luck though.

Thanks Cindy for your reply, it looks like most of the business that managed to get a license they did while running an ICO, I didn't ask anybody directly but that is what seems to be like the pattern, while raising funds from the ICO use the first funds received to acquire the license.

Anyways it's hard to talk to somebody involved with a similar company because they see you like a competitor, so of course it's not in their interest to help you.

I had an idea about running an ICO, but my token would be considered as security token, and according to the lawyer I asked informations to set up the ICO would have costed me something like 400k (without counting the money required for marketing).

I think I might be able to get investors, but having the platform ready and not being able to launch it because a license it kind of hurts 

I know there are 100's of websites that do provide trading services without being regulated or without having any license, i don't know how to do that without getting in trouble and what would be the best way to do that.

Meanwhile of course I will apply to get a license, because I want to provide to my users a service that is regulated.

To add further. Try reaching out to other projects and see what they have done with licensing. Many won't respond or care to share but I like to believe in human kindness.

On your point about not wanting to conduct an ICO because you don't need millions of dollars. You can do a smaller ICO with not such a large raise. Go back a few years and ICOs never raised millions of dollars like they do today. Alternatively you could seek investment through another source, that might enable you to hire a lawyer who can help expedite the process.

Thanks! your answer was very useful, I'm from Italy and I did some research, Estonia and Malta are the best options for eu based companies, however both require a license, it may take up to 1 year to get it.
I did some research as well on ICO and to set up an ICO is very expensive, plus I don't need millions of dollars to be fair to run this project so I decided not to go with it.
I really want to be regulated but I don't really want to wait a year, that's the main issue.
My business model is not exactly based on an exchange it's more like a real trading platform (think it like forex), so I need something different according to the lawyer I have been speaking to.
They told me I need a license called VFA (malta).
It's very interesting the fact that if I register the company here in Italy I don't need a license, I didn't know that, so I will look for it.
Thank you again.

I am not a lawyer and so my advice will be very limited and will be based on common sense. Before you have taken the trouble to create an exchange you should have researched the laws of your country, for this you could count on the help of a lawyer in your country. But leaving that aside let's your question:


as far as I know, in the United States, Japan and South Korea are the countries that require licensing and they are very strict, and the most rigorous are Japan and South Korea. in malta you can also have a license, but from what I read they are more considerate. If you are in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Canada and many other countries you may not need a license, see the case of yobit, hitbtc and many exchanges that have no license, but are online and making profits by doing poor service and robbing customers. Of course, the fact that you do not have a license and not be inspected by the government does not mean that you should be a scammer who just wants to create an exchange to enrich by stealing your customers' money


Oh, you do not know. today people have discovered the gold mine to finance their projects that 90% of them are just meaningless projects, I'm talking about ICO. ICO is the new way people found to get funds for their projects.

Hi everybody, I spent the last year building a cryptocurrency based trading platform different from anything else available in the market.
I'm now in the phase where I need to register the company and get started with the licenses process.
I know that until sometime ago most of the exchanges and trading platform didn't had any license, is there a way to get started without a license (legally) and apply for it later on?
I wonder how most of cryptocurrency projects can afford to go live if they have low budget like myself.
I hope somebody can help me to figure out