In one line

There is no official "best" — VARA endorses no advisers. Judge firms on regulator experience, partner-led handling, fixed fees, full-lifecycle service and published depth — and walk away from anyone guaranteeing approval.

A VARA licence is a nine-to-fifteen-month regulatory programme, not a filing. The adviser you choose shapes your category, your capital, your timeline and your relationship with the regulator for years. Here is how to choose one — including how to evaluate us.

The five criteria that actually matter

  • 1. Regulator experience. The single strongest signal is a team member who has worked inside the regulator. Neo Legal's Director of Licensing, Manpreet Kaur, previously served at VARA itself, working on the framework applicants are licensed under. Whoever you shortlist, ask this question first.
  • 2. Partner-led delivery. Ask who runs the matter day to day. Applications delegated to juniors read like it — and VARA's reviewers notice.
  • 3. Fixed fees, defined scope. The fee should be fixed and the scope written: business plan, policy suite, application rounds, regulator dialogue. What's excluded matters more than the headline number.
  • 4. Full lifecycle. The licence is the start. TGRAF audits, NLA reporting and supervisory dialogue follow — a firm that only does applications leaves you at go-live.
  • 5. Published depth. Real expertise leaves a public trail. We maintain 25+ published VARA guides and a live licensing tracker precisely so you can verify ours before paying for it.

The six questions to ask before engaging

  • Who exactly will run my application, and what is their VARA experience?
  • How many applications have you taken to licence, in which categories?
  • What is the fixed fee, what does it cover — and what triggers more?
  • How do you handle post-licence: TGRAF, NLA, supervision?
  • What is my realistic timeline and total cost — capital and staffing included?
  • Show me your published work on VARA.

Vague answers to any of these are your answer.

What it costs — honestly

Professional fees vary with category and readiness: tens of thousands of dollars for a prepared advisory or broker-dealer applicant, toward six figures for complex exchange programmes. Legal fees are one line of several — VARA application and supervision fees, paid-up capital and net liquid assets, resident compliance staff and technology audits complete the budget. A suspiciously low quote usually excludes the work that gets you licensed.

The red flags. Guaranteed approvals. "Licence packages" with no named senior lawyer. Quotes excluding the regulatory business plan or regulator dialogue. No published work you can verify. And pressure to squeeze your activity into a cheaper category — category games discovered by VARA end applications, and sometimes businesses.

Lawyer or consultant?

VARA doesn't require lawyers, and consultants can assemble documents. The difference shows at the hard points: group and token-flow structuring, opinions banks and VARA rely on, negotiating conditions, and the questions where a wrong answer creates liability. Many applicants blend both — but the business plan, the structure and the regulator dialogue are where legal depth repays itself in months of avoided delay.

Judging us by the same tests

Ex-VARA experience leading licensing; founder advising in virtual assets since 2015 across 1,000+ clients including the world's first cryptocurrency IPO; partner-led delivery; fixed fees; the full lifecycle through supervision; and a public library you can read before you call. Start with the crypto practice or the VARA licensing page — then ask us the six questions.

This article is general information as at July 2026 and is not legal advice. Fees, categories and requirements vary by application; obtain a scoped proposal for your specific model.