How Many Crypto Exchanges Have a BitLicense in 2026? (Updated List)

The Short Answer

As of June 2026, 26 companies hold a New York BitLicense, the virtual currency license issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). That sounds like a healthy roster, but here is the part most headlines skip: only about 6 of those 26 are crypto exchanges or trading platforms the public can actually sign up for and use. The rest are payment processors, stablecoin issuers, over-the-counter trading desks, custodians, and Bitcoin ATM operators.

So the honest answer to “how many crypto exchanges have a BitLicense in 2026” is six, set against a wider field of 26 licensed firms doing very different things. If you want to compare these against the broader market, you can browse every crypto exchange on blockspot.io and see which ones serve which regions.

What a BitLicense Actually Is

The BitLicense is New York’s mandatory business license for virtual currency activity. It was created under regulation 23 NYCRR Part 200, which took effect in June 2015, and it applies to any business that buys, sells, holds, transmits, or exchanges crypto on behalf of New York residents. Individual investors do not need one. The license only applies to companies serving others.

To get and keep a BitLicense, a firm has to meet bank-grade standards: minimum capital reserves, a full anti-money-laundering program, a written cybersecurity policy, consumer protection disclosures, and regular examinations by NYDFS. The regulator also controls which coins a licensed firm can offer without extra approval through a short pre-cleared “Greenlist,” which in 2026 contains just eight assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a handful of regulated stablecoins.

BitLicense vs Limited Purpose Trust Charter

This is where the counting gets confusing. NYDFS authorizes virtual currency businesses through two separate doors, and only one of them is the BitLicense.

The second door is the Limited Purpose Trust Charter, granted under New York Banking Law rather than the Part 200 rules. A trust charter lets a company hold and manage customer assets as a fiduciary, something a standard BitLicense holder cannot do, and it folds in money transmission without a separate license. Big names that people often assume hold a BitLicense, such as Gemini, Coinbase Custody, BitGo, and Fireblocks, actually operate under trust charters instead. In 2026 there are 12 of these, separate from the 26 BitLicensees.

Add the two groups together and NYDFS regulates 38 virtual currency entities in total. When a report says “38 licensed crypto firms in New York,” it is combining both doors. When the question is specifically about the BitLicense, the number is 26.

The Full List of 2026 BitLicense Holders

Here is every company holding a New York BitLicense in 2026, taken from the official NYDFS register. NYDFS issues two flavors that both count as a BitLicense: a standalone Virtual Currency license (VC) and a combined Virtual Currency plus Money Transmitter license (VC + MT). The “Granted” column shows the year the license was first issued.

That is 26 companies. Look down the “What it does” column and a pattern jumps out: most of these are not places where you open an account and trade.

Which Holders Are Actual Crypto Exchanges?

Strip the list down to firms that run a consumer-facing exchange or trading platform, where a member of the public can sign up and buy, sell, or trade crypto, and you are left with six.

• Coinbase: the largest US retail exchange, though some advanced features remain restricted for New York users.
• Robinhood Crypto: commission-free crypto buying and selling inside the Robinhood app.
• eToro: a multi-asset social trading platform that switched on crypto trading for New York residents in April 2026.
• Bitstamp: one of the oldest exchanges, now operating as Bitstamp by Robinhood after a 2025 acquisition.
• bitFlyer USA: the US arm of Japan’s bitFlyer, offering retail and pro spot trading.
• Coin Cafe: a smaller New York Bitcoin platform for buying, selling, and storing BTC.

A second group lets the public buy or sell crypto but is not a full exchange. Block’s Cash App, PayPal, and Strike all let you buy and sell Bitcoin inside a payments app, while LibertyX and Cottonwood run Bitcoin ATMs. Everyone else on the list, from Circle and Mastercard to Cumberland, Anchorage, and the two Zero Hash entities, serves stablecoins, institutions, or other businesses rather than retail traders.

Who Joined and Who Left in 2026

The register is not static. Three new BitLicenses were granted in 2026: Zap Solutions, the company behind the Strike Bitcoin app, in February; then GalaxyOne Prime NY (Galaxy Digital’s institutional arm) and a Mastercard subsidiary, both in May. eToro also belongs in any 2026 update because it had held its license since 2023 but only turned on crypto trading for New Yorkers in April 2026.

Licenses also disappear. In the prior two years, Bakkt’s consumer crypto unit, Cboe Clear Digital, SoFi Digital Assets, Genesis Global Trading, and Coinsource all voluntarily surrendered their NYDFS registration, with Bakkt pivoting toward institutional stablecoin infrastructure. The headline number drifts up and down as firms enter and exit, which is exactly why a list like this needs a date attached.

Why So Few Companies Hold One

Eleven years after the rules took effect, the BitLicense roster is still small by design. The application is widely considered one of the most demanding crypto licensing processes in the world. Applicants face steep capital requirements, must build compliant cybersecurity and anti-money-laundering systems before approval, submit detailed background checks on their leadership, and then face ongoing examinations. The process can take years and cost millions in legal and compliance work.

That high bar is the point. New York chose a slow, strict gate over an open one, which keeps the licensed field narrow but means the companies that clear it have been vetted hard. It also explains why many global exchanges simply do not serve New York at all rather than pursue a BitLicense.

BitLicense vs Europe’s MiCA

The closest comparison outside the United States is Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework. The two regimes solve the same problem in opposite ways. A BitLicense covers a single state, New York, and is famous for how few firms hold it. MiCA covers the entire European Union plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, and a license granted in one member state can be passported across the whole bloc.

The result is scale: where New York counts 26 BitLicensees, Europe already has many more MiCA-authorized firms across 30 countries. If you want the other side of the regulatory map, see our guide to the best MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges in Europe, which lists the major platforms operating under that EU-wide passport.

What a BitLicense Does and Doesn’t Guarantee

A BitLicense is a meaningful signal, but it is not a guarantee of safety. It is worth being clear about both sides before you treat it as a green light.

What it gives you:

• Independent oversight, with capital, cybersecurity, and anti-money-laundering standards enforced by a state regulator.
• Consumer protection rules, disclosures, and a complaints process the firm must maintain.
• Regular examinations rather than a one-time approval.

What it does not give you:

• A promise that your funds are insured or that the company cannot fail.
• Any coverage outside New York, since the license is state-specific.
• Confirmation that a firm is an exchange at all, given that most holders are processors, custodians, or infrastructure providers.

The safest move is to verify a claim yourself. NYDFS publishes its live register of regulated virtual currency businesses, so you can confirm whether a company really holds a BitLicense and when it was granted. The same habit applies in Europe, where you can check whether a crypto exchange is MiCA-licensed using the official EU registers.

Why This Matters in 2026

Regulation has become a selling point. As more of the crypto market moves toward licensed, compliant platforms, knowing who actually holds a BitLicense, and who only appears to, helps you tell a vetted exchange from a marketing claim. The number to remember for 2026 is 26 BitLicense holders, of which roughly six are exchanges you can trade on, plus 12 separate trust-chartered firms.

Because NYDFS keeps adding and removing names, treat any count as a snapshot. For the definitive, current roster, the official NYDFS register of regulated virtual currency businesses is the authoritative source, and it is the same list this article was built from.