Hungary Issues First MiCA License, Then Repeals Its Own Stricter Crypto Rules

Hungary’s central bank has issued the country’s first license under the EU’s MiCA crypto framework, and just over a week later, parliament repealed the tougher national rules that had pushed much of the local crypto industry out of the country.

The license went to Tiwala Solutions, the company operating the exchange CoinCash, after a 16-month review process. It’s the first time a Hungary-headquartered company has been authorized directly under MiCA, the EU’s harmonized crypto rulebook, rather than operating under a license passported in from another member state. The authorization covers six categories of service, including custody, crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto exchange, investment advice, portfolio management, and asset transfers.

CoinCash’s own recent history shows how disruptive Hungary’s prior, stricter national rules had been: the company suspended its exchange platform, ATM network, and customer service in December 2025, citing the domestic regulatory environment at the time. Getting MiCA-authorized took over a year of work even before the additional Hungary-specific requirements were repealed.

Eight days after CoinCash received its license, Hungary’s parliament approved legislation removing the country’s extra national crypto-asset requirements, aligning it more closely with the EU-wide MiCA standard rather than layering additional local rules on top. For a market that had seen a near-total exodus of crypto businesses under the stricter regime, that repeal removes a major reason for firms to avoid operating there.

The sequence illustrates a broader pattern across the EU since MiCA took full effect: national add-on requirements that go beyond the harmonized rulebook create friction and drive businesses elsewhere, while alignment with the EU-wide standard tends to bring them back. Other national regulators weighing whether to keep their own stricter local rules now have a fairly direct example of the trade-off.

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