The FCA cryptoasset application fee has not been published yet
What PS26/14 actually says
PS26/14, the FCA's policy statement on regulated fees and levies for 2026/27, does not contain the cryptoasset application fee. At paragraph 1.10 the FCA states that it will publish its response to feedback on cryptoasset application fees, and the final rules, in its September Handbook Notice. That is the whole of the position. The fee exists as a consultation proposal. It does not yet exist as a made rule.
The timing deserves attention. The application window opens on 30 September 2026 and closes on 28 February 2027. A September Handbook Notice therefore lands within weeks, possibly days, of the gateway opening. Firms budgeting now are budgeting around a line item that will only be fixed at the very end of the preparation period.
The GBP 11,260 figure is a different fee
One number circulates freely in this context: GBP 11,260. That is the application fee for registration as a cryptoasset business under the Money Laundering Regulations. The FCA places cryptoasset registration in fee Category 6, its band for moderately complex applications, under fee-block G23 in the FEES manual. It is real, published and currently payable. It is not the FSMA authorisation fee.
Conflating the two produces a specific and avoidable planning error. A firm assumes the cost of the gateway is already known, budgets around eleven thousand pounds, and closes the question. The question is not closed, and the FSMA figure has no published ceiling to anchor against.
Applying for both at once
There is one published rule that connects the two fees. The FCA has said that where a firm applies for MLR registration and FSMA authorisation after 30 September 2026 using shared application information, it will pay a single application fee: the higher of the MLR registration fee and the FSMA authorisation fee. That is useful to know, but it does not tell you the amount, because the FSMA side of the comparison is the part that has not been published.
The same FCA page is explicit that the two applications are determined separately even where they are assessed concurrently, and that being registered under the MLRs does not guarantee authorisation under FSMA. The shared fee is an administrative convenience, not a merger of the two assessments.
Budgeting around an unknown
The practical answer is to carry the fee as an explicit unknown rather than a guess. Mark it TBC in the budget, note the September Handbook Notice as the resolving event, and assign someone to check it. A fee you have flagged as unresolved is a manageable item. A fee you have silently estimated at the MLR rate is a hole.
It also helps to keep the fee in proportion. For most applicants the authorisation fee will not be the number that decides feasibility. The permanent minimum requirement under PS26/12 is. Those figures are published and final: GBP 75,000 for dealing as agent and for arranging deals, GBP 150,000 for operating a trading platform, for staking and for safeguarding, GBP 350,000 for issuing a qualifying stablecoin and GBP 750,000 for dealing as principal. A firm carrying several permissions meets the highest applicable requirement rather than the sum. The FCA declined to provide transitional relief on the basis that the PMR is a threshold condition for authorisation. Against that, an application fee of any plausible size is a rounding error.
The dates that are already fixed
Fee uncertainty is not a reason to wait. The dates that govern the work are settled: the window opens 30 September 2026, closes 28 February 2027, and the regime commences on 25 October 2027. The FCA has said firms that are registered under the MLRs should note there will be no automatic conversion and that they will need to secure authorisation under FSMA. Nothing about the fee changes the drafting, the governance work or the capital position, and none of that can be compressed into the last fortnight of the window.
The checklist behind this article
Our UK gateway readiness checklist is an 11-page document covering what the FCA asks for at the gateway, with every item cited to a rule, an article number or a published FCA statement, and open questions marked as open rather than papered over. The application fee is one of those open items. USD 149, and the updated edition is free when the September 2026 fee notice and the autumn perimeter guidance land.
If your permission set is clear and your only open question is the fee, the checklist is enough on its own. If your perimeter is genuinely contested, or you are unsure which activity heads you fall under, a 48-hour gap check is the faster route.