Do you need a licence to accept crypto payments? What the US regulators have written.

Who regulates a business that accepts crypto payments?

In the United States, two layers of rules can apply to a business that accepts crypto: federal anti-money-laundering rules run by FinCEN, a bureau of the Treasury, and each state's own money transmission or virtual currency licensing law. The federal layer decides whether a business is a money services business (an MSB, subject to FinCEN's registration, reporting and recordkeeping rules). A state licence is a separate question, asked state by state.

This post quotes FinCEN's guidance, which sets the federal categories, and one state regulator, New York's Department of Financial Services, whose FAQ answers the merchant question in so many words. It does not cover other states or other countries, each of which has its own law. Nothing here is legal advice, and none of it says whether your business needs a licence. That depends on what you do, where, and for whom, which is a question for a lawyer who knows the facts.

What does FinCEN say about a merchant paid in crypto?

FinCEN's guidance does not name a merchant paid in crypto as a category of its own. It sorts people into users, exchangers and administrators, and defines a user as "a person that obtains virtual currency to purchase goods or services." That definition and the rule for users date from March 2013, in FIN-2013-G001:

The next sentence reads: "Such activity, in and of itself, does not fit within the definition of 'money transmission services' and therefore is not subject to FinCEN's registration, reporting, and recordkeeping regulations for MSBs." Footnote 8, attached to the quoted sentence, says it "should not be interpreted as a statement about the extent to which the user's activities comport with other federal or state statutes, rules, regulations, or orders." In May 2019 FinCEN consolidated its virtual currency rulings in FIN-2019-G001. Its introduction says: "This guidance does not establish any new regulatory expectations or requirements." It restates the 2013 categories: exchangers and administrators generally qualify as money transmitters under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the law behind these rules, and users do not.

Section 4.2.1 of the 2019 guidance applies the same idea to self-custody wallets, which FinCEN calls unhosted wallets: "In so far as the person conducting a transaction through the unhosted wallet is doing so to purchase goods or services on the user's own behalf, they are not a money transmitter." That sentence is about the person paying; it says nothing about the merchant who receives the payment.

When is a crypto payment processor a money transmitter?

FinCEN's 2019 guidance says crypto payment processors, intermediaries between a merchant and its customers, fall within the definition of a money transmitter. Section 4.6 describes them: "CVC payment processors are financial intermediaries that enable traditional merchants to accept CVC from customers in exchange for goods and services sold." It goes on: "The CVC payment processor may collect the CVC from the customer and then transmit currency or funds to the merchant, or vice versa." CVC, convertible virtual currency, is FinCEN's term (section 1.3) for virtual currency that either has an equivalent value as currency or acts as a substitute for it.

Its conclusion: "CVC payment processors fall within the definition of a money transmitter and are not eligible for the payment processor exemption because they do not satisfy all the required conditions for the exemption." The guidance says such processors generally cannot satisfy the second of its four conditions: operating through clearance and settlement systems that admit only BSA-regulated financial institutions.

For wallets and other intermediaries between an owner and the value, section 4.2 says: "The regulatory treatment of such intermediaries depends on four criteria: (a) who owns the value; (b) where the value is stored; (c) whether the owner interacts directly with the payment system where the CVC runs; and, (d) whether the person acting as intermediary has total independent control over the value."

The differences between a provider that holds funds and one that does not are worked through with a 100.00 USDC example in custodial vs non-custodial crypto payments, and the parts of a gateway are explained in what a crypto payment gateway is.

Do US states license businesses that accept crypto?

US states write their own licensing laws, and New York's regulator answers the merchant question in its BitLicense FAQ. On NYDFS's virtual currency businesses page, checked on 15 October 2026 (the page shows no last-updated date):

• FAQ 1: "A person (whether an individual or a company) that engages in Virtual Currency Business Activity requires a BitLicense."
• FAQ 3, "Does my store need a BitLicense to accept Virtual Currency as payment for goods or services?": "No. Merchants and consumers that use Virtual Currency solely for the purchase or sale of goods or services are exempt from the licensing requirement." The FAQ cites 23 NYCRR 200.3(c).
• FAQ 8 says that developing and disseminating software as a purely technical service does not, in itself, require a BitLicense, citing 23 NYCRR 200.2(q), and adds: "The use of your product or service, however, may involve licensable Virtual Currency Business Activity." Its examples: software that lets customers self-custody virtual currency in a wallet would not, in itself, need one; a wallet service that keeps custody of other people's funds likely would.

Other states define money transmission and virtual currency activity in their own statutes. The New York answer does not carry over to them, nor to any country outside the US.

Does the GENIUS Act create a licence for merchants?

The GENIUS Act licenses issuers of payment stablecoins, and its prohibitions address issuers and "digital asset service providers"; it does not name businesses that accept stablecoins. The Act takes effect by 18 January 2027, and as of 15 October 2026 its rules are still mostly proposals; dates, definitions and the rulemaking list are in the GENIUS Act explained for merchants.

What does Fianto do in a crypto payment?

Fianto is non-custodial payment software: the customer's wallet signs one Solana transaction that sends USDC straight to the merchant's wallet, and Fianto never holds the merchant's money. When a fee applies, the same transaction sends it to Fianto's treasury as a second transfer. The merchant pays nothing, not even a network fee; during the beta there is no Fianto fee, and afterwards the customer pays about 0.1 to 0.5% on top of the price. The wallet only signs; Fianto broadcasts the signed transaction to the network. Subscription renewals are pulled within the cap the customer approved on chain and land in the merchant's wallet the same way, and a refund is the merchant sending USDC back from its own wallet. The step-by-step flow is in how money moves, and what the customer signs is on the security page.

Fianto also runs checks of its own. Every merchant is reviewed by a person before it can take a payment, from a typed business profile, mandatory two-factor sign-in and a signed proof of the receiving wallet. Fianto staff can mark a payer wallet as blocked by hand, which refuses its checkouts and renewals. No list is checked automatically, and payers are never asked for ID; do merchants need to KYC crypto payers covers the FATF and FinCEN texts on that question.

What should you ask a lawyer before accepting crypto?

The facts a lawyer will ask about follow the lines the regulators draw. Bring answers to these:

1. Is every payment for your own goods or services, or do you ever receive crypto to pass on to someone else, such as sellers on a marketplace?
2. Who holds the crypto between the customer and you: nobody, a processor, or an exchange account in your name?
3. Do you convert crypto to dollars for anyone other than yourself?
4. Which states and countries are your business and your customers in?
5. Which token do you accept, and who issues it?

For the accounting side, what to record for each USDC payment is covered in accounting for USDC revenue. Tax and licensing are separate questions, and the regulators' own pages linked above are the texts to bring to the meeting.