Georgia requires a business providing covered virtual-asset services in the country to register as a Virtual Asset Service Provider with the National Bank of Georgia. “Crypto licence” is common search language; the legal process is NBG registration followed by continuing supervision.
Which services fall within VASP registration?
The regulated scope can include virtual-asset/fiat and virtual-asset/virtual-asset exchange, transfers, custody or administration of assets or instruments enabling control, portfolio management, trading-platform administration, permitted lending, and initial virtual-asset offerings or related services.
Classification follows the real service flow. Labels such as wallet, broker, OTC desk, gateway or technology provider do not decide the legal position on their own.
The applicant is an operating company
The applicant should be a Georgian limited liability company or joint-stock company. Direct and indirect significant owners, ultimate beneficial owners and administrators must be transparent, supported by evidence and assessed against the exact operating model.
What the application should demonstrate
- Approved corporate structure, ownership and service scope.
- Owners, UBOs and administrators with reputation, experience, solvency and source evidence.
- Rights to the Georgian head office, website, application and electronic system.
- Customer, information, fiat and virtual-asset flows showing all participants.
- Due diligence on banks, payment providers, custodians, liquidity venues and VASP counterparties.
- A functioning system, controls, logs and regulator-ready demonstration.
- Three-year business/financial plan and a credible organisation and staffing plan.
- AML/CFT, sanctions and internal-control framework connected to actual system behaviour.
Timing must be explained honestly
The 60-calendar-day legal decision period runs after a complete required filing. It is not a guaranteed total project duration. Ownership evidence, foreign criminal records, translations, systems, people, providers, testing and NBG follow-up determine the real timeline.
Registration is the beginning of supervision
The VASP must maintain its office, people, systems, records, controls and reporting. Material changes involving owners, administrators, locations, products, channels, websites/apps, providers or systems may require prior approval or notification. The NBG registration act must be visible or easily available through the service channels.