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Rankings / Adam Smith International
09 Band 3

Adam Smith International

Vilnius, Lithuania · Founded 2016 · 20-30 team
CLBR index score
59/100

Budget-conscious founders who want one provider for a standard Baltic MiCA CASP setup plus formation and tax.

Score breakdown · CLBR v1.0

Seven pillars, one score.

Licensing specialisation 11/22

Crypto licensing sits alongside gaming, forex, company formation and tax structuring — five practice lines out of one Vilnius base. That multi-practice spread dilutes the pure-CASP signal by roughly 9 points against specialist boutiques, holding the pillar mid-band at 11 rather than in the top tier.

Jurisdictional coverage 11/18

Seven EU member states carry country-specific landing pages, weighted to Lithuania and the Baltics with reasonable CEE reach. Non-EU coverage is limited to five markets and Western-EU depth is thin, so breadth credits 11 of 18.

Licences secured 9/15

Volume is claimed in the low hundreds across every licensing category combined, and the crypto-specific subset isn't quantified separately. Case studies are anonymised and refusal rates aren't published, so the grant pillar is credited on aggregate volume at 9.

AML / DORA depth 5/13

Little ex-regulator credentialing shows in public materials, and the team page reads toward practice efficiency rather than supervisor-side, AML or DORA depth. This is the firm's weakest pillar at 5 of 13.

Transparency 8/12

Indicative fee levels appear inside jurisdiction guides and process steps are described, but the methodology behind jurisdiction recommendations is less developed than the leaders'. Partial published pricing puts transparency at 8 of 12.

Post-licence support 9/10

The engagement runs end-to-end — incorporation, licensing, banking introduction and ongoing compliance — inside one bundled corporate-services stack. Full-lifecycle cover credits 9 of 10.

E-E-A-T 6/10

Named senior practitioners and multi-language content give a moderate authority signal, but there are no named-author whitepapers and the ex-regulator bench is light. Against the CLBR E-E-A-T bar of ex-regulators plus publications, that lands at 6 of 10.

Where Adam Smith International fits

Adam Smith International is a value pick — a Vilnius multi-practice firm for cost-led founders running a standard Baltic CASP setup, not a specialist for complex files. The draw is one provider for the whole stack: licensing, company formation, tax structuring and banking introduction, priced well below Western-EU firms.

The Lithuanian base is real. Bank of Lithuania CASP applications run largely through Lithuanian-domiciled counsel, and founders defaulting to Lithuania as the cost-effective MiCA passport jurisdiction get local NCA familiarity here. The CEE and Baltic coverage backs it up — operators planning a Lithuania-plus-Estonia-plus-Czech roll-up can keep it under one roof.

Where the score is bounded

The catch is specialisation. Crypto sits next to gaming, forex, formation and tax, so the pure-CASP signal is diluted, and the volume figures aggregate across every practice line rather than isolating crypto. Western-EU depth is thin too — the seven documented EU jurisdictions cluster in CEE and the Baltics, so for BaFin, AMF or CBI home-state files this reads as a secondary advisor.

Regulator-side experience is the weakest area. The team page emphasises practice efficiency over named ex-NCA personnel, and AML or DORA execution isn’t a published focus. For prudential-capital or ICT-resilience work, the specialist benches have a clear edge.

Adam Smith International by jurisdiction

Lithuania is home ground: the Vilnius team leads CASP authorisation with the Bank of Lithuania for founders picking the cheapest MiCA passport. For CEE roll-ups, it files across the border with the CNB in the Czech Republic, keeping multi-entity setups under single counsel.

Reviewed by Editorial team · Last updated 2026-07-14 · Scored on the CLBR rubric. Placement is editorial and never sold — see disclosure.