Editorial policy
How we research, how we rank, how we are paid, and what we will not do.
Sourcing
We use primary sources wherever they exist. For Maryland law that means the General Assembly's own bill files, the Code of Maryland Regulations, and the publishing agencies themselves — the Office of Financial Regulation, the Office of the Attorney General and the Comptroller of Maryland. For licensing we use NMLS Consumer Access. For fees and product terms we use the operator's own published schedule rather than a secondary comparison site.
Where a figure is a range or an estimate, we say so. Where something is changing — pending legislation, annual rate setting, operator repricing — we say that too and point you at the authoritative source rather than presenting a snapshot as permanent.
How we rank exchanges
Five criteria, weighted in this order:
- Maryland licensingVerified on NMLS Consumer Access, not taken from a marketing page. A platform whose Maryland licence cannot be confirmed does not appear.
- Real cost to a retail buyerThe all-in cost of a realistic purchase, including funding fees and the spread — not the headline rate.
- Security and solvency historyLoss of customer funds, suspended withdrawals, lost banking rails, published attestations. A factual record, not a reputation.
- What actually works from a Maryland addressFeatures restricted at the state line count for nothing however good they look nationally.
- Practical usabilitySupport channels, withdrawal to self-custody, tax exports, minimum purchase size.
We deliberately ignore sign-up bonuses, referral promotions, asset count beyond a sensible threshold, and anything involving leverage or derivatives. A promotion is a one-off; a fee structure is permanent.
Affiliate disclosure
Some outbound links on this site are commercial partnerships. If you open an account through one, we may
receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Those links are marked rel="nofollow" and the
relationship is disclosed in our footer and on the pages that carry them.
We do not sell rankings, we do not accept payment for placement, and we do not publish sponsored content presented as editorial. The test of whether that is true is the content: a large share of this site tells readers to avoid the more expensive options rather than to use them, and several product pages recommend against the product they describe.
What we will not publish
- Price predictions, or any suggestion that we know what an asset will do
- Recommendations to buy a specific asset, or personalised investment advice of any kind
- Rankings influenced by commercial payment
- Promotion of platforms without verifiable licensing to serve Maryland residents
- Leverage, derivatives or yield products marketed to beginners
- Fixed kiosk address lists that will be stale within months and send people on wasted journeys
Independence and limits
We are not a broker, exchange, money transmitter, investment adviser, tax adviser or law firm, and nothing on this site is financial, investment, legal or tax advice. We do not hold customer funds and never take custody of anyone's crypto. For anything of consequence, speak to a professional licensed in Maryland.
Corrections
Email contact@crypto-maryland.com with the page URL and the correction. Corrections are handled before anything else in the inbox. Where a correction changes a material fact, we update the page and note the change rather than editing silently.
Updates
Pages are reviewed when Maryland rules change and when operator coverage shifts materially. The 2025 kiosk statute and the January 2026 registration deadline both reshaped this market, and every page reflects the position after those took effect. The "reviewed and updated" date on each page is the date of the last substantive review, not an automated timestamp.