Is Stake legit? What its own licence record says
Is Stake legit?
Stake's licence is real: the Curacao Gaming Authority's own published registry lists licence OGL/2024/1451/0918, held by Medium Rare N.V. The same registry entry gives that licence a term that ended on 9 June 2026 and a status of Assessment in progress, and Stake's binding terms commit to no withdrawal time at all. Two official Curacao documents disagree about it.
Piece published Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
Stake's licence is real: the Curacao Gaming Authority's own published registry lists licence OGL/2024/1451/0918, held by Medium Rare N.V., company number 145353. The same registry entry gives that licence a term that ended on 9 June 2026 and a status of "Assessment in progress", and Stake's binding terms commit to no withdrawal time at all.
"Is it legit" is usually asked as a yes or no question and almost never has a yes or no answer. Four of the fourteen operators on the register claim a licence that could not be found in any issuing register at all. Stake is not one of them. What matters is what the registry says next to the licence.
Is Stake's licence still active?
The registry does not say so. The Curacao registry PDF retrieved on 2 September 2026 gives the licence a term running from 9 December 2025 to 9 June 2026, and a status of "Assessment in progress". The term ended roughly three months before the registry was read.
That alone is not a scandal. Regulators run behind, renewals sit in queues, and an operator whose paperwork is being assessed is not an operator whose licence was pulled. A depositor would still want to know it, and it is not what the site says.
Medium Rare N.V. is licensed by the Curacao Gaming Authority under licence number OGL/2024/1451/0918.
Present tense, unqualified, no term dates, no status. The registry and the terms are not in flat contradiction, but they tell a reader two different things about the same licence, and only one of them is written by the regulator.
Two official Curacao documents disagree
The Curacao Gaming Authority's certificate portal shows the same licence as Active, granted 9 June 2025. The Authority's own published registry PDF shows the term as 9 December 2025 to 9 June 2026, status assessment in progress.
Same authority, same licence number, two different grant dates and two different statuses. Both are cited on the Stake entry, because neither can be shown to be the current one, and picking one would be inventing a fact.
| Artefact | Grant or term | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CGA registry PDF, 31 Aug 2026 | 2025-12-09 to 2026-06-09 | Assessment in progress |
| CGA certificate portal | Granted 2025-06-09 | Active |
The phrase "licence verified" on a review site can mean the reviewer found one document. Finding two is how you discover they disagree.
Does Stake's contract promise a withdrawal time?
No. Stake's terms state no withdrawal timeframe at all. The commitment people quote comes from a company blog page saying crypto withdrawals should be processed immediately, with support to be contacted if a request is not approved within three business days.
A blog page is not a term of service. It can be edited without notice, and it is not what a dispute is resolved against. The gap between "processed immediately" in marketing and silence in the contract is one of the five contradictions documented on this operator, two of them high severity. The instant withdrawal piece sets Stake's silence beside the thirteen other contracts.
Will Stake ask for ID?
It depends on a withdrawal threshold Stake has not published. The terms reserve the right to request documents at any time. The anti-money-laundering policy is more specific: it suspends an account until diligence completes once it passes a withdrawal threshold tied to the account's risk characterisation. That threshold is not disclosed.
So is Stake legit?
It holds a real Curacao licence, and it sits on the watchlist because the regulator's two documents about that licence disagree. The question splits into the four things people are asking:
- Does the company exist and is it licensed? Yes. Medium Rare N.V., Curacao, licence findable in the issuing register.
- Is the licence currently in good standing? The Authority's own two documents disagree. One says active, one says assessment in progress on a term that has ended.
- Does the contract commit to paying you quickly? No. The binding terms commit to no timeframe.
- Has anyone here tested a withdrawal? No. No withdrawal test has been run on any operator on this register, and every page carrying a score says so.
Stake sits on the watchlist for the second of those, not the first. Watchlist means something material is unconfirmed or contradicted. It is not an allegation of non-payment, and there is none to make.
What this does not show
We have not tested a withdrawal, contacted the company, or audited anything. The 2023 theft of 41 million dollars from Stake, attributed by the FBI to the Lazarus Group, is a matter of public record and is not evidence about the company's conduct toward players; it is in the sources because a reader searching this question will meet it and should meet it with attribution.
Every figure above comes from the documents listed below. If one of them has moved since it was retrieved, tell us and the correction goes in the public log.
Quick answers
Is Stake licensed?
Yes. The Curacao Gaming Authority registry lists licence OGL/2024/1451/0918, held by Medium Rare N.V., company number 145353, as recorded on the Stake entry.
Is Stake's licence still valid?
The registry PDF of 31 August 2026 gives a term that ended on 9 June 2026, status "Assessment in progress"; the certificate portal shows it as Active. Both are cited on the Stake entry.
How long do Stake withdrawals take?
The terms commit to no timeframe. The three-business-day figure appears only on a company blog page, as the instant withdrawal piece records.
Why is Stake on the watchlist?
Because the Authority's two documents disagree about the licence's standing. Separately, five contradictions are documented on this operator, two of them high severity. The full list is on the watchlist.
Was Stake hacked?
In 2023, 41 million dollars was stolen from Stake in a theft the FBI attributed to the Lazarus Group. It is not evidence about the company's conduct toward players, and any correction to this page goes in the public log.
Sources
- Curacao Gaming Authority online gaming licence registry, 31 August 2026
- Stake terms and conditions
- Stake anti-money-laundering policy
- Stake deposit and withdrawal methods
- FBI press release on the September 2023 theft
About this piece
Compiled by the CryptoGuardz register team from the sources listed above. Research and drafting are AI-assisted and reviewed by a named editor before publication. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble. If a figure or a reading is wrong, tell us and the correction is logged in public.