# Which AIFC Licences Are Live, and What They Permit

> A note on reading the register rather than the press release, and on the difference between a permission and a service.

- Source: https://astanacryptonotes.com/which-licences-are-live/
- Published: 2026-08-10
- Author: Yerlan Nurpeis
- Publication: Astana Crypto Notes — Dated notes from the AIFC
- Topic: licensing
- Tags: licensing, aifc, register

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The register is public. Almost nobody reads it, which is why announcements circulate for years after they stopped being true.

## What the register shows

The entity, the authority, the permissions held, any conditions, and the status. Current, suspended or withdrawn.

Four fields that answer most questions people ask me.

## What it does not show

Whether the service is actually running. A permission is a right to do something, not evidence that it is being done.

I have seen more than one entity with live permissions and nothing operating behind them. That is not improper. It is simply a different fact from the one people infer.

## The distinction worth keeping

Authorised to do X. Currently doing X. Doing X at a quality worth using.

Three separate questions. The register answers the first, observation answers the second, and the third takes longer.

## Reading a permission

Permissions are activity-specific. Authorisation to operate a trading facility is not authorisation to hold client assets, and the two are frequently assumed together.

Where a platform holds one and performs both, that is worth asking about.

## Conditions

Often where the interesting information sits: restrictions on client types, on asset classes, or on scale. A condition is a supervisor saying something specific.

## What I check before writing about any platform

Entity name against the register, permissions against what the site advertises, and status against the date. Two minutes.

## What remains unverified

Whether the services advertised correspond to live infrastructure. I can check the register; I cannot check a back end.

Where I have not tested something myself, I say so.

## The practical use

Before depositing anywhere, read the entry. [A platform whose permissions are on the register](https://collectnexchange.com/compliance/cysec-licensed) can be checked in the same way wherever it is licensed.

[Collect & Exchange](https://collectnexchange.com/) names its framework, and [somewhere the licence covers what the platform actually does](https://collectnexchange.com/services/crypto-exchange) is the specific thing to confirm rather than assume.

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This article explains how something works. It is not financial advice.
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