CASP Licence · Czech Republic

CASP Licence in the
Czech Republic

The Czech National Bank is issuing MiCA licenses. It has issued eleven.

Check whether your model qualifies ⟶ Estimate your first-year cost ⟶
In short

How do you get a CASP licence in the Czech Republic, and what does a Czech crypto licence from ČNB cost?

A CASP licence in the Czech Republic is a MiCA authorisation granted by the Czech National Bank (ČNB) under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and Act No. 31/2025 Coll., in force since 15 February 2025. Capital is set by class: EUR 50,000 for advice, brokerage and transfers, EUR 125,000 for exchange and custody, EUR 150,000 for a trading platform. The application fee is CZK 20,000, about EUR 800. The statutory clock is 25 working days for completeness plus 40 for assessment, but the realistic path from filing to decision is eight to ten months, because the clock stops on every information request. ČNB’s July 2026 press release counted 11 licences from 251 applications; as of the ESMA interim register of 16 September 2026, ČNB has authorised 12 CASPs; see the register in numbers. The regime fits exchanges, brokers and custodians with a real Czech office and management on the ground. Protegra prepares the file and runs the regulator dialogue, from EUR 45,000.

ItemFigureBasis
RegulatorCzech National Bank (ČNB)Act No. 31/2025 Coll., in force 15 February 2025
Capital by classEUR 50,000 / 125,000 / 150,000Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114
Application feeCZK 20,000 (about EUR 800)ČNB
Statutory clock25 + 40 working daysArticle 63 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114
Realistic time to decision8–10 monthsPractice; clock stops on each information request
Licences granted12 CASPs (11 from 251 applications in ČNB’s July 2026 release)ESMA interim register, release 16 Sep 2026
Corporate tax21%, flatCzech corporate income tax

Sources: Czech National Bank (ČNB), press release of July 2026; ESMA interim register, release 16 Sep 2026; Annex IV and Article 63 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114; Act No. 31/2025 Coll.

Why teams choose Protegra

Built for crypto — not adapted to it

Our team has advised on MiCA licensing and compliance in Poland, Latvia, Malta, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands. We hold no Czech license of our own and make no claim to one: what we bring is files built to the same standard in neighbouring member states.

100% crypto-focused.

We turn a Czech CASP application into a business that can operate after approval.

Start your Czech assessment ⟶

We only do this

Crypto and fintech regulation is the whole of our practice — MiCA, AML, DORA and CASP licensing across five member states. A Czech file needs people who have already argued exchange, custody, governance, substance and banking with a supervisor, not generalists meeting the regime for the first time.

We build the difficult part first

ČNB discontinued 81 proceedings on substance, not formatting. So the business model, the Czech entity, the key roles, the financial plan, the AML framework and the ICT controls are settled before the first form is filled in, and the application becomes evidence of an operating design rather than a folder of policies.

We stay after the licence is issued

AML monitoring, MLRO reporting, DORA’s ICT obligations and supervisory reporting all begin on the day the decision arrives. Most advisers consider the engagement finished there; we stay on the file so that year one is not a second project.

Not a slow queue.
A filter.

Regulatory facts

What is the Czech CASP regime, and when did the transitional deadline pass?

EUR 50,000
minimum capital, Class 1

Class 1 covers advice, brokerage and transfers. Exchange and custody need €125,000, and a trading platform €150,000.

CZK 20,000
application fee, about EUR 800

A fraction of Latvia’s EUR 2,500 or Malta’s EUR 10,000 to 25,000 — and the least important number on this page.

8–10
months — realistic time to a decision

The statutory clock is 25 plus 40 working days, but it stops on every information request, and that is where most of the calendar disappears.

Regulator
Česká národní banka, the Czech National Bank — ČNB
National law
Act No. 31/2025 Coll., on the digitalisation of the financial market
In force since
15 February 2025
EU framework
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, directly applicable — MiCA
Licences granted
11 — the first six on 11 February 2026 (August 2026 · ČNB register)
Transitional regime
Ended 1 July 2026
Company form
A limited liability company (s.r.o.) or a joint-stock company (a.s.)
Capital
EUR 50,000 / 125,000 / 150,000 by class
Application fee
CZK 20,000

The Czech Republic brought its implementing act into force in February 2025, which made ČNB the competent authority in fact and not only on paper. Eleven firms now hold a Czech CASP license, among them Coinmate, Anycoin, Invity and Simplecoin — companies the local market recognises. Neighbouring Poland, by contrast, still cannot grant this license to anyone: its crypto-asset market act has been vetoed and no Polish authority has been designated under MiCA.

The second line worth reading twice is the transitional regime. It closed on 1 July 2026. Firms that were serving Czech clients under the old rules have no grandfathering left to fall back on, and whatever you are running today is running either under a license or outside the framework.

Fit

Who does a Czech CASP license fit, and who should look elsewhere?

Czechia works well if

  • You want an EU license that passports into all 27 member states from a regime that is demonstrably running.
  • Your team can genuinely sit in Prague or Brno — real office, real people, decisions taken locally.
  • You are an exchange, a broker or a custodian with a business history to show.
  • You want a flat corporate tax rate with nothing to model around.
  • Costs matter: the application fee is about EUR 800, against EUR 2,500 in Latvia and EUR 10,000 to 25,000 in Malta.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need the license in under six months. The statutory clock is 25 plus 40 working days, but the real path from filing to decision has run to about seven months even in a clean case.
  • You intend to run the company from outside Czechia with a nominal local director. ČNB names this pattern explicitly among the reasons applications fail.
  • You need certainty before you spend. Eleven files out of 251 have produced a license; the rest are still waiting or were discontinued, and nobody can promise you which group you land in.
  • You want the cheapest possible entry. Slovakia charges about EUR 15 for the same application, and if the fee is the deciding factor, that comparison is worth making honestly.
Ask us whether it fits your model ⟶

Prague.
Your EU base.

PRAGUE. WHERE THE DECISION IS MADE.

Eleven companies hold a Czech CASP license as of August 2026. Of the four whose entries we opened in the commercial register, three are in Prague: Coinmate a.s., the largest Czech exchange; Simple Coin s.r.o.; and Invity Finance s.r.o., which took the first license in the country in February 2026. The fourth, Pluso a.s., sits half an hour outside the city — being close to the regulator helps, and nobody is obliged to buy it.

Choose your licence class

What are the three capital classes of a CASP licence in the Czech Republic, and what sits in each?

MiCA sets the capital, not the Czech Republic, so these numbers are identical in Prague, Riga, Valletta and Bratislava. What differs between countries is everything around them: the fee, the tax, the supervisor’s temperament. Pick the class by the services you actually intend to provide, because adding a service later means going back to ČNB.

Class 1 · min. own funds€50,000

Advisory, brokerage and transfer services

Fits you if you advise on crypto-assets, receive and transmit or execute client orders, place crypto-assets, manage portfolios or move assets between addresses — and never hold them yourself. It covers reception and transmission of orders, execution of orders on behalf of clients, placing of crypto-assets, advice on crypto-assets, portfolio management and transfer services. It does not cover custody and administration of client crypto-assets, exchange of crypto-assets for money or for other crypto-assets, or operating a trading platform.

Calculate cost ⟶Apply for Class 1 ⟶
Most commonClass 2 · min. own funds€125,000

Exchange and custody services

Fits you if you exchange crypto-assets for money or for other crypto-assets, or you hold client assets. The moment client assets sit with you, this is your floor. It covers everything in Class 1, plus custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients, and exchange of crypto-assets for funds or for other crypto-assets. It does not cover operating a trading platform where third parties trade against each other.

Calculate cost ⟶Apply for Class 2 ⟶
Class 3 · min. own funds€150,000

Trading platform authorisation

Fits you if you run a venue where third parties trade against each other. It covers everything in Classes 1 and 2, plus operation of a trading platform for crypto-assets, and it carries the heaviest governance, prudential and market-integrity obligations MiCA imposes — this is the most closely supervised model the regulation recognises, and it is priced accordingly.

Calculate cost ⟶Apply for Class 3 ⟶

One boundary is worth stating plainly, because it catches people. Class 1 does not authorise custody as a service — but it does not exempt you from Article 70 either. Client funds that pass through your hands while you execute an order still have to be safeguarded. The class decides what you are allowed to offer, not whether client money is protected.

Capital is a reserve, not a cost. It sits in an EU or EEA bank account and stays on your balance sheet, and if you wind the company down in good order it comes back to you. What you actually spend is the fee, the advisers, and a year of running the business while the file is assessed.

Requirements

What does ČNB require before it looks at a CASP application?

At least one director resident in the European Union. Czech residence is not required, and neither is residence for shareholders — ownership can sit anywhere.

Residence does matter for the roles that deal with the supervisor directly. The AML function in particular is expected to be reachable and answerable locally, which is a practical constraint rather than a formality.

A compliance officer responsible for AML and CFT. Under Act No. 253/2008 Coll. a crypto-asset service provider is an obligated person, with everything that follows: risk assessment, customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, reporting.

A risk management function, an ICT and information security function, and a named owner for client complaints.

Fit and proper review of every member of the management body and every shareholder with a qualifying holding: clean record, financial standing, professional experience, CV, and a declaration of how much time each person will devote to the role.

A real office in the Czech Republic. A letterbox address does not pass — ČNB has named virtual addresses among the patterns behind failed applications.

Management that actually manages from Czechia. The supervisor looks for decisions being taken locally, not ratified locally after being taken elsewhere.

An EU or EEA bank account holding the regulatory capital.

Critical functions — risk management, ICT security, compliance, key management — under your effective control. MiCA permits outsourcing; responsibility stays with you.

Constitutional documents of the company.

A programme of operations, normally over three years, with financial projections a supervisor will read as realistic.

Proof that capital has been paid in, and documentation of where it came from.

The AML and CFT policy set.

An ICT and information security policy aligned with DORA.

A risk management policy.

A complaints handling policy.

A business continuity plan.

A description of the custody model, if you will hold client assets.

The content of the pack is set by Article 62 of MiCA together with Commission Regulations (EU) 2025/305 and 2025/306, which have applied since 20 April 2025 and prescribe both the substance and the forms.

Cost calculator

How much does a Czech CASP license cost in the first year?

Pick a class and toggle the services you need — we estimate your first-year cost, including the share-capital reserve.

Three levels of support

How much of the work do you want us to do?

01 · TEMPLATES

You get the documents. You file them yourself.

€15,000
  • The full policy, procedure and governance pack for this regulator
  • Application forms filled in as far as your own data allows
  • One handover session so you know what goes where
  • You deal with the regulator yourself
02 · TAILORED

We write the file around your business.

€45,000
  • Everything above, rewritten around your actual model
  • Business plan, governance and AML/CFT built from your data
  • We assemble and check the whole file before it goes in
  • You submit and answer; we stay on call throughout
Every figure on this page assumes this level
03 · TO DECISION

We carry the file to the regulator’s answer.

€90,000
  • Everything above, and we file it
  • Every regulator question and clarification round comes to us
  • Meetings and pre-application engagement handled for you
  • We stay on the file until the decision is issued

One licence, three levels — the regulator asks for exactly the same file in all three, and what changes is how much of it sits with you. The middle level is the default here: every price on this page is quoted at it, and the selector above the total switches between them. Moving up or down changes our fee and nothing else — not the capital, not the state fees, not the statutory clock. Carrying a file to the decision is not a promise of approval: no adviser can give one, and an adviser who does is selling you something other than advice.

Our services — preparation and regulator dialogue€45,000
Application fee to ČNBCZK 20,000, converted at a rounded rate — ČNB charges in Czech koruna.€800
Share capital, held as reserveA reserve, not a cost: it stays on your balance sheet and is outside the Year 1 total.€50,000
DORA documentation and ICT audit€10,000–15,000
Compliance officer / MLRO About €1,000 a month on a Letter of Intent while the file is with ČNB, then the full seat at about €5,000 a month once it is granted. A Czech decision takes eight to ten months, so the first year is mostly the Letter of Intent. How long it runs depends on the regulator; switch it off to price a full seat from day one.€20,000 / yr
Data protection officer€500–1,200 / mo
IT risk manager€1,000–3,000 / mo
AccountingFrom €500 / mo
Physical officeFrom €1,000 / mo
Administrative costsFrom €100 / mo

The application fee is the cheapest line in this table and the one quoted loudest elsewhere. CZK 20,000 is roughly EUR 800, a fraction of Latvia’s EUR 2,500 or Malta’s EUR 10,000 to 25,000. It is also the least important number here. What decides whether this project takes one year or two is the quality of the file, and eleven licenses out of 251 applications is the market price of getting that wrong.

All figures are lower bounds. Exact cost follows from your service mix, your class and how much of the structure already exists. Additional work beyond the agreed scope is EUR 250 per hour.

Roadmap with Protegra

How does a Czech CASP application actually run, from decision to license?

Decide which MiCA services you are applying for, because that decision fixes your capital class and the shape of the entire file. Incorporate the company — a limited liability company (s.r.o.) or a joint-stock company (a.s.) — appoint the board, secure the office, open the bank account for the capital.

Programme of operations, AML and CFT policies, risk management, ICT and DORA documentation, custody model, continuity plan, complaints procedure. Applications are won and lost here: ČNB’s objection to the cohort it discontinued was substance, not paperwork.

The application goes to ČNB on the prescribed forms under Regulation (EU) 2025/306, with the CZK 20,000 fee.

ČNB checks whether the file is complete. An incomplete file is not refused; instead ČNB issues an information request, and the clock stops until you answer. This is where most of the calendar quietly disappears.

The regulator assesses the business, the governance, the controls and the people. Further questions are normal. This is the stage where 81 proceedings have been terminated and 213 suspended.

The statutory clock adds up to roughly three months of regulator time. Invity, one of the first license holders, filed in July 2025 and was authorised on 11 February 2026 — seven months, in a case that went well. Eight to ten months is the honest planning assumption.

Begin with your Czech assessment ⟶Book a free call first ⟶

Plan the business around ten months and treat anything faster as a good outcome. A three-month promise quotes the statutory clock and ignores the suspensions that make up most of the real elapsed time.

That is a filter

Why did 251 Czech applications produce only 11 licenses?

ČNB assessed 251 applications and granted eleven. That is not a slow queue. That is a filter.

See how we build the file ⟶

0 formal refusals

on the merits, as of 31 October 2025

81 proceedings terminated

most after unanswered information requests

213 proceedings suspended

pending missing documents

The regulator said why, in its own words: a high proportion of the applications was, in substance, wholly inadequate, missing essential information and documents. It also pointed at a specific pattern — applicants with no demonstrable business history, registered at virtual addresses, planning to run most of their actual operations somewhere else.

The mechanism catches people out. As of 31 October 2025 ČNB had issued zero formal refusals: not one application had been rejected on the merits. What it had done was terminate 81 proceedings and suspend 213, out of 236 filed. A Czech application does not come back with a refusal letter you can appeal. It comes back with a request for information, and if you cannot close the gap, the proceeding is discontinued.

So the question worth answering before you file is not how fast this can go through. It is whether the file survives first contact with a supervisor who has already discontinued eighty-one of them.

Binance did not carry its European application over the line in time and withdrew from the EU market when MiCA took full effect on 1 July 2026. Scale does not substitute for a file that answers the regulator’s questions.

The moments where Czech applications actually stall

How does Protegra run a Czech CASP application?

A EUR 800 filing fee does not make this a paperwork exercise. These are the six questions clients ask us, and the six places a file goes wrong. Select one to see how it is answered.

Before Protegra
“Which class do we actually need?”
With Protegra
“The services you intend to sell fix your class, your capital and half the content of the file. Adding one later means going back to ČNB with a variation, so the model gets settled before the first document is drafted.”
Talk to a Czech crypto-regulatory expert ⟶Schedule a free call ⟶
Tax

What tax does a Czech crypto company pay, and what does its owner pay?

Corporate income tax
21%, flat

No small-company band and no sliding scale. What you see is what you pay.

VAT
21% standard

Exchange of crypto for fiat and crypto for crypto is exempt under §54 of the Czech VAT Act. Advisory, software and custody fees are not automatically exempt — treatment follows the service, not the industry.

Payroll
7.1% + 4.5%

Social and health insurance on the employee side in 2026, with the employer contributing separately on top.

Dividends, treaty resident
15%, final

Withheld at source under §36 and settled there. The payment never enters your annual return, and the 23% band never touches it.

Dividends, no treaty
35%

The penalty rate. Where you are tax resident, and whether you can prove it, decides which of these two you pay.

Social and health insurance
None

Dividends carry none at all. A director’s fee paid separately does, and is taxed like salary.

Personal disposals of crypto
0%

Exempt since 2025 on either of two tests — with a limit worth reading, below.

A worked example, because the headline rate hides the real one. An owner drawing CZK 2,000,000 in dividends pays CZK 300,000 and keeps CZK 1,700,000 — about EUR 70,000 at the August 2026 rate — with nothing owed in social or health insurance. Measured from the other end, that CZK 2,000,000 began as CZK 2,531,646 of company profit, so the whole journey from earnings to pocket costs roughly 32.85%.

The exemption on personal crypto disposals runs on two separate tests: annual crypto income up to CZK 100,000 regardless of how long you held it, or any amount held for more than three years, both inside a combined CZK 40 million ceiling shared with securities. Two limits matter more than the relief itself. It belongs to individuals only — a Czech company pays 21% on the same gain from the first koruna, with no holding period to wait out. And stablecoins are excluded from at least the first test, while the Czech Financial Administration has publicly criticised the relief as a money-laundering channel. Use it, document it, and do not pick the jurisdiction for it.

The neighbours

How does the Czech Republic compare with Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta?

Capital and the statutory clock are identical everywhere: MiCA is a regulation rather than a directive, so EUR 50,000 to EUR 150,000 and 25 plus 40 working days apply across the union without national variation. Everything that actually differs between these six countries is national.

CountryRegulatorApplication feeCorporate taxRegime status
Czech RepublicČNBCZK 20,000 (~EUR 800)21% flatRunning · 11 licenses granted
Polandnone designated—9% / 19%Not operating · act vetoed three times
SlovakiaNBSabout EUR 1521%Running
LatviaLatvijas BankaEUR 2,500 + EUR 5,000/yr + 0.6% of revenue20%Running
LithuaniaBank of Lithuaniaabout EUR 2,40017%Running · 6 licenses from 102 applications
MaltaMFSAEUR 10,000–25,00035% headlineRunning

Poland is the one row where the comparison is not about price. Its crypto-asset market act was passed by the Sejm three times and vetoed three times, most recently in June 2026, and the regulator has confirmed that no Polish authority has been designated as competent under MiCA, with the narrow exception of e-money token issuers. Firms are still being sold Polish CASP licenses that nobody can currently grant.

Slovakia and Latvia sit on either side of Czechia on cost — about EUR 15 against EUR 2,500 in entry fees, with Latvia adding an annual charge that scales with revenue — and at this level of spend neither difference decides anything. Lithuania is the closer competitor: corporate tax four points lower at 17%, a regulator with far more crypto files behind it, and a transitional period that closed six months before the Czech one. It is also markedly harder — six licenses from 102 applications, against eleven from 251 here. Malta trades in a different currency altogether — the deepest supervisory experience in EU crypto, against a 35% headline corporate rate and an annual bill an order of magnitude above Prague.

/mica-slovakia· /mica-latvia· /mica-malta· /casp-mica
FAQ

Czech CASP licensing questions

01How much does a CASP licence in the Czech Republic cost?
The application fee to ČNB is CZK 20,000, roughly EUR 800. Regulatory capital is EUR 50,000, EUR 125,000 or EUR 150,000 depending on your class, and it is a reserve rather than a cost. Professional support starts at EUR 45,000 with us; the Czech market starts at around EUR 7,000 for a minimal filing and runs well above our figure for full-scope work.
02How long does it take to get a Czech CASP license?
The statutory clock is 25 working days for completeness plus 40 working days for assessment. Invity, one of the first license holders, filed in July 2025 and was authorised in February 2026 — seven months. Eight to ten months is the realistic planning assumption; the gap is time spent with the proceeding suspended while information requests are answered.
03How many CASP licenses has ČNB actually granted?
Eleven, out of 251 applications assessed, as of 1 July 2026. The first six were granted on 11 February 2026. Holders include Coinmate, Anycoin, Invity and Simplecoin.
04Does ČNB refuse applications?
Almost never in a formal sense. As of 31 October 2025 there had been no refusals on the merits. Proceedings are suspended pending missing information and then terminated if the gap is not closed — 213 suspended and 81 terminated out of 236 filed.
05Do I need a Czech director?
No. At least one member of the management body must be resident in the European Union; Czech residence or citizenship is not required. What is required is that management is real — ČNB has named nominal management and virtual addresses among the patterns behind failed applications.
06Can a Czech CASP company be owned by non-residents?
Yes. There is no residence requirement for shareholders, and ownership can sit outside the EU entirely. Residence matters for the people who answer to the supervisor — at least one director must be resident in the European Union, and the AML function is expected to be locally reachable and accountable.
07Is a virtual office enough?
No. A physical office in the Czech Republic is expected, along with management that takes decisions there.
08What documents does the application need?
Constitutional documents, a programme of operations over about three years with financial projections, proof and provenance of paid-in capital, AML and CFT policies, an ICT and information security policy aligned with DORA, risk management and complaints policies, a business continuity plan, and a description of the custody model if you will hold client assets. The required content is set by Article 62 of MiCA and Commission Regulations (EU) 2025/305 and 2025/306.
09Is cryptocurrency legal in the Czech Republic?
Yes. Crypto is legal to hold, buy and sell, and since MiCA took effect the business of providing crypto-asset services to clients is licensed by the Czech National Bank. Eleven companies hold that licence today. Operating without one is unlawful, and the transitional arrangements that let the old register carry on have ended.
10What is the corporate tax rate for a Czech crypto company?
21%, flat, with no reduced band. Exchange of crypto for fiat and crypto for crypto is exempt from VAT under §54 of the Czech VAT Act; other services follow their own treatment.
11How much tax does the owner pay to take money out of a Czech company?
Dividends are withheld at 15% under §36 and settled there, so they never enter your annual return and the 23% band never applies to them. They carry no social or health insurance either. An owner drawing CZK 2,000,000 keeps CZK 1,700,000, about EUR 70,000. Counting the 21% corporate tax paid first, the full journey from company earnings to personal account costs roughly 32.85%. Non-residents from countries without a Czech tax treaty pay 35% instead of 15%.
12Can I still operate under the old transitional rules?
No. The Czech transitional regime ended on 1 July 2026, and there is no grandfathering left to rely on.
13Can a Czech license be used in other EU countries?
Yes. A CASP authorisation passports across all 27 member states through notification by the home regulator, without a second authorisation process.
14Why not apply in Poland instead?
Because nobody in Poland can currently grant the license — the implementing act is not in force and no competent authority has been designated under MiCA.
Get a personalised Czech plan ⟶Book a call ⟶

Reference: Crypto-asset service provider (MiCA CASP) licences compared in the Licensing Atlas.

Written by Danil Marmysh ·
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