The upside of an expensive licence
By Janusz Nowakowski, from conversations at BTC Prague 2026
Julian Liniger thinks Europe’s crypto rules make it too expensive to start a company. For Relai, the company he cofounded, that barrier also has a use.
At BTC Prague, we talked about Relai’s expansion beyond Switzerland. Its app lets people buy and sell Bitcoin and set up regular purchases. It had obtained a licence under MiCA, the EU’s crypto regulation, so it could actively pursue customers across the bloc.
What did getting licensed teach you?
There are a lot of legal requirements. You need to have the right people in compliance and work very, very hard. They will tell you no a lot of the time, and you will get a lot of setbacks. Not everyone can do it. It’s a really tough process. In the end, it’s not rocket science.
Is MiCA a good direction for business?
It’s good that there’s one licence and one regulatory framework. The bad side is that it’s really hard to get. It’s a lot of effort, a lot of cost. It will stifle innovation and new companies coming into the market because not everyone can afford it. The cost of doing business is very, very high.
But for us as a business, once we have it, it’s good.
“It keeps new competitors out,” I said.
We also talked about the spending he could control.
If you make cuts, what do you cut?
Clearly, marketing. It’s almost going to zero, because that’s the easy spend. You can increase when the market goes up and decrease. It’s easy to stop spending on paid ads and influencers and stuff like that.
If you were starting Relai again, what would you defend?
I would try to raise even more money when the bull market is there, so that I have to raise less when there are bear markets. It’s a very cyclical business.
I would also be more cautious about how to spend the money. Even in a bull market, I would try not to spend too much and save every dollar I can, because I know there are going to be bear markets again.
Edited for length and clarity from two conversations at BTC Prague 2026.