Crypto license in Bulgaria: MiCA CASP requirements (2026)

The national Markets in Crypto-Assets Act, adopted by parliament on 20 June 2025, came into effect on 8 July 2025, fully implementing EU MiCA at domestic level. The FSC is designated as the primary CASP licensing authority; the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) oversees e-money token issuers. DORA was also transposed on the same date.

The National Assembly adopted Bulgaria's domestic Markets in Crypto-Assets Act, covering public offerings of crypto-assets, trading platform admission, and CASP/ART issuer licensing. A transitional grandfathering period allows VASPs registered with the NRA as of 30 December 2024 to continue operating without a full MiCA licence until 1 July 2026.

MiCA's CASP authorisation regime became fully applicable in all EU member states including Bulgaria on 30 December 2024, requiring any firm providing crypto-asset services to hold an EU licence; existing NRA VASP registrations became the baseline for transitional treatment under the forthcoming Bulgarian implementing act.

Amendments to the Measures Against Money Laundering Act (adopted by the National Assembly on 14 July 2023) entered into force, broadening the statutory VASP definition to include additional service categories and introducing fit-and-proper requirements for VASP managers, directly responding to MONEYVAL's 2022 findings on R.15 gaps.

MONEYVAL adopted Bulgaria's Mutual Evaluation Report in May 2022, rating the country partially compliant with FATF Recommendation 15 on virtual assets and placing it in enhanced follow-up; identified gaps in VASP registration, supervision, and risk assessment directly drove the 2023 MAMLA amendments.

Ordinance No. N-9 of 7 August 2020 set out the detailed terms and procedure for entry into the National Revenue Agency's public register of virtual-asset service providers, making Bulgaria's NRA registration certificate (commonly called the 'crypto licence') the primary operational authorisation for VASPs.

Bulgaria amended the Measures Against Money Laundering Act in November 2019 to transpose 5AMLD (Directive 2018/843), subjecting crypto-to-fiat exchanges and custodial wallet providers to mandatory NRA registration, KYC, customer due diligence, and transaction monitoring obligations for the first time.

On 19 May 2017 Bulgarian law enforcement arrested six members of a criminal network that had bribed customs officials and deployed malware to evade customs fees, confiscating over 213,000 BTC (then worth ~$500 million); the case remains one of Europe's largest state crypto seizures and the ultimate disposal of the coins has never been officially confirmed.

Bulgaria's National Revenue Agency issued guidance on 2 April 2014 treating cryptocurrency as a financial asset; gains from disposals are subject to the 10% personal income tax (or 15% corporate/commercial rate), making Bulgaria one of the first EU states to publish formal crypto tax treatment and establishing the tax framework still in use today.