6 Signs Your On-Ramp Provider Isn’t Actually Licensed

Plenty of crypto on-ramp providers describe themselves as “compliant” or “regulated”. The words are easy to print and hard to check, and a licence claim that falls apart later becomes your problem, because your users’ payments and your own regulatory exposure ride on it. Here are six signs that a provider’s licensing may not hold up, and how to confirm the truth in a few minutes.

This pairs with our 9 questions to ask before you sign with an on-ramp provider. To see a verifiable licence in practice, jump to the Paybis On/Off-Ramp for business.

Sign 1: They say “compliant” but never name a regulator or licence

Words like “compliant”, “secure”, and “regulated” carry no weight on their own. A real licence has a named regulator, a licence type, and a legal entity it was issued to. If a provider talks about compliance without naming the authority that licenses it, treat the claim as marketing until it is proven. Ask a direct question and expect a direct answer: which regulator authorises you, and under which licence?

Sign 2: You can’t find them on an official register

Every genuine licence appears on a public register that anyone can search. In the EU, crypto-asset service providers authorised under MiCA are listed on the official ESMA register, published under MiCA Article 109. Look up the exact legal entity rather than the brand name, and check that the home country matches where the provider says it is regulated. You can search the register through the independent CASP tracker, then confirm against ESMA’s own file as the authoritative source. If the entity is not listed, the licence claim does not stand.

Sign 3: They call an anti-money-laundering registration a licence

An AML registration and a service licence are different things, and providers blur them often. Registering with a financial-crime authority, for example an MSB registration in the US or a legacy national crypto registration in the EU, shows a company is on a regulator’s radar for anti-money-laundering. It does not authorise the company to provide crypto services the way a licence does. In the EU this line became sharp on 1 July 2026. After that date a legacy national registration alone no longer lets a firm serve EU clients, and only a full MiCA CASP authorisation does. Ask whether the provider holds a licence to provide the service or only an AML registration.

Sign 4: The licence doesn’t cover the service or the region they sell to you

A licence is specific. MiCA defines a set of separate service categories, and each provider is authorised only for the ones listed in its register entry. A provider licensed for custody is not automatically cleared to run exchanges or execute orders. A licence issued in one EU country passports across the EU and EEA, but a registration in a single non-EU country does not cover the EU. Check that the authorisation actually covers the service you are buying and the markets you sell into.

Sign 5: They lean on a partner’s licence or a regulator’s logo

Some providers show a regulator’s logo, or mention a licensed partner, in a way that suggests the licence is their own. Operating under a partner’s licence can be legitimate, but only when the provider is open about it and the arrangement covers your transactions. Ask which legal entity holds the licence, and whether that is the same entity you are signing a contract with. A logo is not a licence.

Sign 6: They won’t put the details in writing

A licensed provider will give you the licensing details without hesitation: the legal entity name, the licence type, the issuing regulator, the date it was granted, and a link to the register entry. If a provider is slow to share these, hands you a screenshot instead of a register link, or cannot name the entity that holds the licence, take the delay as your answer.

What a licensed provider looks like

Run these checks against Paybis and here is what you find. The licensed entity is SIA Paybis Europe. It holds a MiCA CASP licence and a PSD2 Payment Institution licence, both issued by the Bank of Latvia (Latvijas Banka) in May 2026. The MiCA authorisation passports across all 27 EU countries and the wider EEA, and it covers six crypto-asset service categories, including custody and crypto-to-fiat exchange. You can confirm the entry yourself on ESMA’s official register or through an independent CASP search. Beyond the EU, Paybis is registered with FinCEN in the United States and FINTRAC in Canada. Both are registrations, not licences, and calling them by the right name is the distinction sign 3 is about. A verifiable licence gives you all of it: a named entity, a named regulator, a date, and a register you can check in a minute.

Want a provider you can verify on a public register? See the Paybis On/Off-Ramp for business.

Written by

Konstantin Vasilenko

Konstantins is a blockchain and digital payments executive with over 20 years of IT experience. He co-founded Paybis in 2014, helping build it into a global crypto platform serving users across 180+ countries. He brings deep technical and business expertise to Paybis' growth and partnership strategy. He is also a co-founder of the Latvian Blockchain Association and is a regular speaker at major industry events, where he represents Paybis' vision of making crypto accessible and useful for both individuals and businesses worldwide.