Florida Money Transmitter Licences & Crypto

What the licence is

Florida does not have a "crypto licence". It has a money services business regime — Chapter 560 of the Florida Statutes — that was written for wire transfers and cheque cashing and has since been extended to cover virtual currency.

Chapter 560 defines virtual currency as "a medium of exchange in electronic or digital format that is not currency", and requires a licence — or an exemption — for any person who, for compensation, acts as a money transmitter by receiving currency, monetary value, a payment instrument or virtual currency in order to transmit it from one person or place to another by any means.

A 2022 amendment, signed that May, clarified the virtual currency definition and eased licensing for certain narrow activities. The core requirement was unchanged: if a business holds or moves crypto for other people, it needs authority from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation.

That is why the licence matters to you even though you will never hold one. It is the mechanism by which Florida distinguishes a regulated business from a website.

How to verify a licence in two minutes

Do this before you enter an email address on any platform, let alone deposit money. It is free, requires no account, and there is no reason not to.

1. Open NMLS Consumer Access. Go to nmlsconsumeraccess.org. This is the public-facing side of the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, used by state financial regulators across the US.
2. Search the exact legal entity name or NMLS ID. Note "exact legal entity" — platforms often trade under a brand that differs from the licensed entity. CEX.IO's licensed entity is CEX.IO Corp, NMLS ID 1804170.
3. Open the state licence list. Confirm Florida appears and note the licence number and status. For our top pick that is . Check the status reads active rather than suspended, surrendered or expired.
4. Cross-check the OFR. The Florida Office of Financial Regulation maintains its own money transmitter records and licensee search.
5. Confirm federal registration. Search the FinCEN MSB registrant list for Money Services Business status. Chapter 560 licensing requires a compliant federal AML programme, so the two should align.

What a licensee had to prove

The check is worth doing because the licence is not a rubber stamp. Chapter 560 requires substantive financial and compliance standards.

None of that guarantees good behaviour. All of it excludes the large category of operators who could not or would not meet it — which is precisely why the licensed set is so much smaller than the set of platforms advertising to Floridians.

Who needs one, and who does not

Licensed platforms serving Florida

Every platform we cover on this site holds Florida money transmitter authority. Verify each one yourself — we would rather you checked than trusted us.

Licence status is a snapshot and can change. Connecticut suspended Bitcoin Depot's money transmission licence in March 2026, two months before the company filed for Chapter 11. Check the register before a significant deposit, not once and never again.

What a licence does not guarantee

Being honest about the limits makes the check more useful, not less.

• It is not insurance. Your crypto is not FDIC-insured, SIPC-protected or otherwise guaranteed. The surety bond is a limited pool for specific consumer claims, not cover for a market fall or a total business failure.
• It is not a solvency guarantee. Licensed businesses can and do fail. Bitcoin Depot held licences and still filed Chapter 11 in May 2026.
• It is not an endorsement. The OFR licenses businesses; it does not vouch for them, rate them or recommend them.
• It is not permanent. Licences get suspended, surrendered and revoked. A check from two years ago tells you about two years ago.
• It says nothing about fees. A licensed kiosk operator can legally charge you 20% all-in. Chapter 560 regulates conduct and solvency, not pricing.
• It says nothing about security. Byte Federal is a licensed operator and still disclosed a breach affecting approximately 58,000 customers in December 2024.

So the licence check is a necessary but not sufficient test. It reliably excludes the worst outcomes — offshore platforms that freeze withdrawals, outright fake exchanges, unlicensed operators with no legal presence and no recourse. It does not tell you whether a licensed business is well run.

Spotting an unlicensed operator

Unlicensed platforms rebrand faster than any list can track, so learn the pattern rather than the names.

• You cannot find the entity in NMLS or the OFR register. That is the whole test. There is no "licence pending" that permits taking Florida customers' money.
• "No KYC" marketing to US residents. Federal MSB rules require customer identification. Advertising the absence of it to Americans means unlicensed, misrepresenting, or both.
• Withdrawal fees, "taxes" or unlocking payments. No licensed platform requires a deposit before releasing your withdrawal. This is the defining signature of investment fraud.
• The deposit account name does not match the licensed entity. Being asked to wire to a personal account or an unrelated company is decisive.
• They contacted you first. Licensed platforms do not cold-message people about investment opportunities.
• Guaranteed or unusually smooth returns. Markets are not smooth. A dashboard showing 3% every month is a design choice.
• Aggressive leverage marketing. High-leverage offshore venues profit from liquidations. That is the business model.

The Florida Attorney General's Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit recovered $5.4 million in a single case announced in April 2026 and has reported $7.2 million in total since its founding. Recovery is possible, rare and partial. The register check beforehand is free. Read our Florida scam guide and check any investment adviser on Investor.gov.

If you are building a crypto business in Florida

This page is written for consumers, but the question comes up often enough to address briefly.

If your business will receive or transmit virtual currency on behalf of customers, assume you need a Chapter 560 licence and plan for it properly. That means the $100,000 net worth requirement, a surety bond scaled to projected volume, permissible investments covering outstanding obligations, a federally compliant anti-money-laundering programme in place before application, background checks on principals, quarterly reporting on the revised Form OFR-560-04, and examination readiness.

Some narrow activities fall outside the definition or within exemptions, particularly after the 2022 amendment — but the boundaries are genuinely fact-specific and the consequences of getting it wrong include criminal exposure. This is one of the clearest cases on this entire site for engaging a Florida financial services attorney before you launch, not after a regulator writes to you.

If your business merely accepts crypto as payment for its own goods and services, you are generally not a money transmitter — but Florida sales tax still applies to the dollar value of taxable sales, and the receipt is income at fair market value on the day received. See our tax guide.

Kiosk operators face an additional regime from 2027: registration with the OFR from 1 March 2027 under HB 505, plus transaction caps, disclosure, receipt and refund obligations. Our Kiosk Act page covers it clause by clause.

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