The Utah Money Transmitter License guide (Faisal Khan LLC, July 2026) covers the state's licensing statute, Utah Code §§ 7-25-101–407, administered by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions with applications filed through NMLS.
Two facts drive the whole guide, and both run against what most published guidance says. Utah's net worth requirement is $1,000,000 (§ 7-25-203(1)(a)) — evidenced by an independent auditor's certified financial statement, with no unaudited path for a newly formed entity. And blockchain tokens are excluded from money transmission by statute (§ 7-25-102(9)(b)): "money transmission does not include a blockchain token." The bond is a flat $50,000 with no volume tier ladder, and it reimburses the state for enforcement costs — it is not a consumer restitution fund.
The original license fee is a low $300, but year-one costs realistically run $1,015,000–$1,070,000+ once the $1,000,000 capital is counted, and the audited-statement requirement alone can add three to six months to the 6–9 month timeline.
What the guide covers:
- Utah's fintech sandbox, repealed and folded into an industry-agnostic sandbox (12 months, extendable by 12 more) that can waive the licensing requirement, with no statutory capital or bond figure of its own
- H.B. 230 (2025), which bars state restrictions on custodying digital assets and exempts staking and node operation from licensing
- The Noncustodial Blockchain Registry, a separate one-year registration (not a license) for companies that never hold a private key
- H.B. 72 (2026) kiosk rules — transaction limits, disclosures, a 24-hour support line, run by Consumer Protection, not the DFI
- The exemption list under § 7-25-202, which covers only three categories, plus the class B misdemeanor penalty for unlicensed operation
- Control thresholds (25%, with a rebuttable presumption under 10%) and the $55-per-hour examiner fee
The guide's verdict: Utah suits a capitalized operator or a token-centric business, not a first, cheap license.