Hungary Implements World's Strictest Cryptocurrency Regulations, Digital Asset Trading Could Lead to Prosecution

BlockBeats News, July 14th. According to Forbes, Hungary officially implemented one of the world's strictest cryptocurrency regulations on July 1st, forcing many large fintech companies to temporarily suspend related services and potentially categorizing the digital asset trading activities of hundreds of thousands of citizens as criminal. This major policy change has caused widespread confusion and concern in the fintech sector.

London-based digital bank Revolut announced, "We are temporarily suspending cryptocurrency services in Hungary with immediate effect until further notice." Revolut has over 2 million users in Hungary. The company stated that it is "working to resume services as soon as possible," but did not provide a specific timeline for the resumption. This suspension covers all new cryptocurrency purchases, staking activities, and recharge operations, although users can still sell their existing holdings and withdraw some tokens to external wallets. Revolut's other banking services are not affected.

The new Hungarian regulations have introduced two new criminal offenses: "Cryptocurrency Abuse" and "Providing Unauthorized Cryptocurrency Exchange Services." Under Hungary's latest amended legal code, individuals using unauthorized cryptocurrency trading services may face up to two years in prison for basic transaction activities; if the transaction amount exceeds 50 million Hungarian forints (approximately $140,000), the maximum sentence can be three years; if it exceeds 500 million forints (approximately $1.4 million), the maximum sentence can be five years.