Is crypto legal in Georgia? What the law allows and what it doesn't

Yes, crypto is legal in Georgia — with one asterisk that trips up a lot of newcomers. You can buy Bitcoin, hold USDT in your own wallet, trade on an exchange and sell back to lari, and the state treats all of that as a regulated, taxable (or, for individuals, tax-free) activity rather than something to ban. What you can’t do is use crypto as money: it isn’t legal tender, and Georgian law prohibits paying for goods and services with it. Everything else in Georgia’s crypto laws follows from those two ideas.

This guide explains the rules in plain language, from the 2022 amendments to the latest capital requirements and the stablecoin rules, with links to the texts on nbg.gov.ge and matsne.gov.ge. It’s an explainer, not legal advice; if a deal depends on the answer, check it with a Georgian lawyer.

The short answer: legal to own, not legal to pay with

Three rules sit at the core of Georgian crypto regulation, all in the Organic Law on the National Bank of Georgia:

• Not legal tender. Article 39¹(1) says it in five words: “A virtual asset is not a legal tender.” The lari is the only legal tender in Georgia, with narrow exceptions for free industrial zones, duty-free shops and cases set by the NBGNBGNational Bank of Georgia — the central bank. It supervises banks and, since 2023, crypto service providers (VASPs)..
• No paying with crypto. Article 39¹(2) prohibits payments with virtual assets, except where an NBG act allows them for providing virtual asset services.
• Providers must register. Under article 52⁵, anyone offering crypto services to other people must register with the National Bank, which supervises them.

For you as an individual, that means: buying, holding, trading and selling are fine. Paying a café, a landlord or a developer directly in crypto is not. And the companies you use to buy and sell should be on the NBG’s public register.

Georgia’s crypto laws in four documents

There is no standalone “Law on Virtual Assets” in Georgia and, as far as we could find, no transposition of the EU’s MiCA rules. The framework is a set of amendments and NBG orders:

The 2022 package came after the 2020 MONEYVAL evaluation found that crypto providers sat outside Georgia’s anti-money-laundering rules. It worked: on 12 December 2024, MONEYVAL upgraded Georgia’s rating on FATF Recommendation 15 (new technologies and virtual assets) from “partially compliant” to “largely compliant”, the NBG announced. The Law on Commercial Bank Activities was also changed so that banks can offer crypto services themselves; the Tax Code was not touched.

Before 2023 there was no registration or licensing regime for crypto businesses at all. The only crypto-specific act was the 2019 tax decision, explained in our guide to crypto tax in Georgia. A parliamentary bill file referring to full prudential supervision of crypto activity has also surfaced, but we couldn’t open it or confirm its status.

What the law counts as crypto, and as a crypto service

Article 2 of the Organic Law defines a virtual asset as “a digital representation of value that is interchangeable and non-unique, can be digitally traded or transferred, and can be used for investments and/or payment purposes”. Digital versions of fiat money, securities and other financial instruments are excluded. Because the definition requires assets to be non-unique, NFTs fall outside it — a reading law firms share.

A virtual asset service provider (VASPVASPVirtual Asset Service Provider — a crypto exchange, ATM operator or custodian. In Georgia every VASP must be registered with the National Bank (NBG).) is anyone who provides one of seven services “for the benefit of another person”:

Two groups don’t need separate registration. Commercial banks, microbanks, microfinance organisations and brokerage companies may provide exchange, transfer, safekeeping and auxiliary crypto services under their own licences. That’s why banks can add crypto features at all; TBC’s in-app crypto trading, for instance, is executed through Bybit Georgia (see banks and crypto in Georgia). And a person trading P2PP2PPeer-to-peer: you buy crypto from another person and pay them directly (e.g. by TBC or Bank of Georgia transfer) while the platform holds their coins in escrow. “solely using own funds” on a platform, without serving third parties, is not a provider at all, according to the NBG FAQ.

A registered provider may do nothing except crypto services, the auxiliary activities they need, and exchanging its own crypto. A crypto exchange can’t also run a software business from the same company.

How the National Bank supervises exchanges

The registration rule — NBG Order 94/04 of 13 June 2023, in force since 1 July 2023 — checks who runs and owns the business (fit-and-proper criteria for administrators, significant shareholders and beneficial owners), sets requirements for the head office, branches, kiosks and software, and requires an AMLAMLAnti-money-laundering rules. They are why an exchange or bank may ask where your money came from. policy with a risk assessment before registration. Providers that were operating before 2023 had 90 days to apply and had to stop if they missed the deadline or were refused. Founders will find the details in our VASP registration guide.

The result is a public register. The version dated 23 October 2026 lists 43 registered providers, numbered 0001-9404 to 0044-9404, all limited liability companies, most based in Tbilisi and several in Batumi. Among global brands, only Bybit Georgia (0019-9404) and WhiteBIT Georgia (0007-9404) are on it. Binance is not, despite press coverage of its Georgian plans. Our page on licensed crypto exchanges in Georgia has the full searchable list.

Registered providers must also show their NBG registration where customers see it: at the head office, branches and kiosks, and on websites and apps. This came from NBG Order 266/04, adopted on 25 November 2025 and announced on 27 November. The NBG’s notice gives 1 January 2026 as the start date; some news coverage dates the rule from the November announcement.

Enforcement so far

The NBG fines providers under a dedicated penalty rule (Order 133/04 of 29 May 2024) and a sanctions-compliance rule (Order 208/04 of 4 August 2023). Published cases include:

• Sher888 LLC (“Sherif crypto exchange”, 0009-9404) was fined GEL 465,000 for AML breaches, including GEL 264,000 for 528 transactions without proper record-keeping. It now appears on the register’s “Canceled” sheet.
• PayBit Georgia was fined GEL 3,000 for a record-keeping breach.

On 7 October 2025 the NBG urged citizens not to use unregistered crypto providers, including those in free industrial zones, which also need NBG registration. It forwards suspected crimes to law enforcement. In May 2026 Georgian media reported the NBG saying that three Georgian companies sanctioned by the UK had operated without registration and were never under its supervision.

How to check a provider in two minutes

KYC and AML: what you’ll be asked for

The NBG supervises crypto providers for anti-money-laundering compliance. The Financial Monitoring Service is Georgia’s financial intelligence unit: it receives reports from providers and sets the reporting and identification rules. (Some sites call the FMS the supervisor; it isn’t.)

According to Andersen Georgia, a registered provider must carry out customer due diligenceKYCKnow Your Customer: identity checks (passport, selfie, sometimes proof of address) that licensed services must run before you trade.:

• when it starts a business relationship with you;
• for any single crypto transaction above USD 1,000, EUR 1,000 or GEL 3,000;
• for a single funds transfer above GEL 3,000;
• whenever it doubts your identification data.

Providers must also apply the travel rule: before sending or receiving crypto, they collect and pass on information about the sender and the recipient. Records are kept for five years after the relationship or one-off transaction ends. In practice you’ll show a passport or Georgian ID card; for large amounts, expect in-person checks and questions about the source of fundsSource of fundsDocuments showing where money came from (salary, sale of property, exchange statements). Georgian banks may ask for them on large crypto-related transfers.. NBG fine notices show inspectors check that providers recorded the “purpose and intended nature” of each customer relationship and screened customers against sanctions and politically-exposed-person lists.

Can you pay with crypto in Georgia?

No — not directly, and this is the rule many guides gloss over. The NBG FAQ states that a Georgian legal entity or individual entrepreneur “is not authorised to receive payment with a virtual asset(s)” for goods or services. The only exception is that a registered provider may charge its own fee in the same crypto.

What is allowed is conversion. On a customer’s instruction, a registered provider can sell the customer’s crypto and send the fiat proceeds to a payment service provider or card acquirer, which pays the merchant. That’s the legal shape of a “crypto payment” in Georgia: the shop is paid in lari. City Pay, whose QR payments some Tbilisi venues use, is itself on the register (0026-9404); the compliant set-up is for such payments to reach the merchant in fiat.

For big purchases the same logic applies:

• Property. Price the contract in lari or dollars, sell your crypto at a registered provider, pay the seller from the proceeds, keep the receipt for the bank and the Public Registry. Our guide to buying real estate with crypto walks through it, and buying a flat in Batumi with crypto covers the coast.
• Cars. Dealers are companies or individual entrepreneurs, so the same ban applies. See buying a car with crypto.
• Private swaps. Exchanging crypto for a car or flat between two private individuals is a grey area: article 39¹ bans “payments with virtual assets” in general, not only by businesses, and we found no official guidance. Don’t build a deal on it.

The new capital and risk rules

Until autumn 2026, registered providers faced no minimum capital requirement, and the NBG’s FAQ said prudential and consumer-protection supervision were not part of the regime. On 8 September 2026 the NBG announced a wider framework:

• Minimum supervisory capital by activity: GEL 150,000 for exchange (including kiosks) and transfer, GEL 250,000 for most other services, GEL 350,000 for running a trading platform, and GEL 500,000 or more for issuing a stablecoin.
• A risk-management framework covering operational risk, cybersecurity, process management and business continuity.
• Precise service lists. The NBG’s registration act will state exactly which services each provider may offer, and the public register will show them.
• Transition. Providers already registered must have the risk framework in place by 1 July 2027 and meet the capital minimums by 1 September 2027.

EY dates the underlying order 26 August 2026. For customers, the practical takeaway is that registration means NBG supervision for AML and, increasingly, for capital and operational risk — but your balance at a crypto exchange is still not a bank deposit. The VASP registration guide has the full capital table.

Stablecoins and the lari-pegged GEL₮

StablecoinsStablecoinA token designed to track a currency, usually the US dollar. USDT and USDC aim to stay worth $1. such as USDT are virtual assets like any other: you can buy, hold and sell them, and our USDT guide explains how. Issuing one in Georgia is a different matter.

NBG Order 52/04 of 6 March 2026 sets the rule for an initial coin offering of a stablecoin by a registered provider. It requires the NBG’s prior written consent and reserves of at least 100%, kept separate from the issuer’s own assets, and it defines a “lari stablecoin”. EY reports two follow-ups: a 21 August 2026 reporting rule (reserves at 100% or more at all times, monthly reports by the 10th) and 9 September 2026 amendments limiting pegs to the lari or another fiat currency, capping any one bank at 50% of fiat reserves above GEL 5 million, and extending the filing deadline for existing issuers from six to twelve months.

Then there’s GEL₮. On 25 May 2026, Tether and the Government of Georgia announced a planned lari-pegged stablecoin, to be developed together with the NBG. The announcement didn’t say who would issue it or when it would launch, and we found no NBG press release on it. Until there’s an issuer, a consent decision and a launch, treat any “GEL₮ for sale” offer as a red flag — our crypto scams guide explains why.

Grey zones: foreign exchanges, NFTs and the occupied territories

Foreign exchanges. A platform missing from the register is not a Georgian-registered provider. That doesn’t by itself mean it’s unavailable to Georgian residents, and many people here use global exchanges. CEX.IO, for example, has operated since 2013 and holds US money-transmitter licences (NMLS 1804170) and a UK FCA cryptoasset registration (FRN 1007192), but it is not on the Georgian register. If Georgian supervision matters to you, Bybit Georgia and WhiteBIT Georgia are the global brands that have it; our exchange comparison sets out the trade-offs.

P2P. Trading with your own money on a P2P marketplace needs no registration. Regularly buying and selling for other people as a business does. Our P2P guide covers the practical risks, including bank questions about transfers from strangers.

NFTs. Because the legal definition needs assets to be non-unique, NFTs fall outside it, and so, on that reading, does a pure NFT marketplace.

Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. These occupied territories are not under the control of the Georgian government, so neither NBG registration nor supervision operates there in practice. Abkhazia’s de facto authorities have alternately banned and permitted mining since 2018, mostly because of power shortages. Georgia doesn’t recognise those authorities, and nothing on this page describes the situation there. Our mining guide has the background.

For the broader picture of buying, selling and storing crypto here, go back to the crypto in Georgia overview.