CASP licensing path in United Kingdom.
CASP (Crypto-Asset Service Provider) licence in United Kingdom is supervised by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Time-to-licence is typically 6–12 months; United Kingdom licences do not benefit from EU passporting.
What this licence allows.
Custody, exchange, transfer, advice or portfolio management for crypto-assets under MiCA.
Post-Brexit, UK EMIs and PIs no longer benefit from EU passporting. UK rules are largely mirror-image of EMD2/PSD2 with FCA-specific consumer-duty overlay.
- Corporate structure + beneficial ownership (UBO ≤ 25%)
- Initial capital deposited in a regulated EU/EEA bank
- Three-line-of-defence governance model
- AML programme + transaction monitoring policy
- Risk-based KYC + sanctions screening process
- ICT-security questionnaire (DORA-aligned from 2025)
- Outsourcing register (BSS, payment partners, cloud)
Three paths to CASP in United Kingdom.
Acquire CASP directly from FCA
Time: 6–12 months. Initial capital: €125,000 – €350,000 (MiCA Class-based). Full control, full obligations. Coreal helps with the IT-security questionnaire and three-lines-of-defence model.
Partner with a United Kingdom licence-holder
Partner with an existing FCA-licensed entity. Coreal contributes the regulated tech stack; partner contributes the licence.
Use the Coreal EMI passport
Coreal operates under its own EU EMI licence. Operator gets a fully-branded wallet without acquiring any licence. Ships in ~60 days.
Who is the CASP regulator in United Kingdom?
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They oversee authorisation, ongoing supervision and enforcement for CASP licence holders in United Kingdom.
How long does CASP authorisation take in United Kingdom?
Typically 6–12 months end-to-end. The bottleneck is usually the regulator's risk and IT-security questionnaire — plan for ≥4 months of regulator dialogue.
Does this licence work cross-border?
CASP authorisations under MiCA are passportable across the EU/EEA from the date the rules came fully into force (Dec 2024).
Bring the perimeter,
leave with a brief.
Read the Wave-1 runbook first.
The full 90-day launch sequence — phases, partner-bank gates, who signs off when. No form to read it.
Read the runbook →INDICATIVE DATA · Numbers and timelines reflect public regulator filings, vendor documentation and our own delivery experience. Per-engagement values vary with operator profile, BSS vintage and regulatory perimeter. Engage early for a fitted estimate under NDA.