Most Hungarian crypto firms shut down or moved abroad when the country took one of the EU's toughest routes to MiCA — a six-month transition instead of the 18 months the regulation allows, a unique national „validator” regime, and criminal liability for breaches. CoinCash made the opposite bet: it voluntarily suspended all services for roughly seven months, its founders self-funded the gap, and it is now the first and only Hungary-based provider to return fully licensed.
The National Bank of Hungary (Magyar Nemzeti Bank, MNB) has granted CoinCash, operated by Tiwala Solutions Kft., a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) authorisation under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) — decision no. H-EN-III-450/2026, issued 20 July 2026. The authorisation covers six services.
Why this is more than a local licence
As MiCA's single rulebook took effect from late 2024, member states diverged sharply on how hard to make the transition — and some firms have gravitated to the most permissive jurisdictions, raising industry concern about the quality of licences that can then be passported EU-wide. Hungary went the other way. It gave existing providers only about six months to comply — a deadline of 1 July 2025, against the up to 18 months MiCA permits and that many member states used, with transitional periods running to 1 July 2026 — and added national requirements with no parallel elsewhere in the bloc.
Chief among them is a unique „validation” regime. On top of the MiCA licence overseen by the central bank, a separately licensed „validator” — supervised by a dedicated national authority, not the MNB — must certify individual exchange transactions, verifying the origin of funds and wallet ownership; any uncertified exchange is treated as legally void. Hungary also made unauthorised crypto-exchange activity subject to criminal liability, with penalties scaling by transaction value. The result is a dual-track supervisory structure found nowhere else in the EU. In that environment, most Hungarian market participants wound down or moved under a licence obtained abroad.
The bet: shut down rather than cut corners
CoinCash chose neither to relocate nor to keep trading in a grey zone. In December 2025 it voluntarily and fully suspended its services — putting customer protection and compliance ahead of revenue — while its founders financed the company from their own resources until the process concluded.
The application, filed in March 2025, went through an exceptionally thorough, multi-round MNB review before authorisation. Because a MiCA authorisation is passportable across the EU/EEA, the licence is, in principle, recognised beyond Hungary.
What the licence covers
The authorisation spans six MiCA services:
- custody and administration of crypto-assets,
- exchange of crypto-assets for funds,
- exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets,
- advice on crypto-assets,
- portfolio management of crypto-assets,
- transfer services for crypto-assets.
For context, an estimated 500,000 people in Hungary hold crypto-assets; CoinCash aims to offer them a supervised, native-language, domestic alternative as it returns.
From mining rigs to a central-bank licence
Founded in 2017 by two entrepreneurs who started with GPU mining, CoinCash quickly pivoted to crypto-asset exchange and Bitcoin ATMs, building Hungary's largest such network — up to 28 machines at its peak — alongside a leading domestic trading platform. It acquired local rival MrCoin in 2021 and, at its peak, served tens of thousands of customers with a team of around 30. Compliance was built in early: the company ran a standalone compliance function and integrated established customer due-diligence and fraud-prevention systems well before doing so was mandatory.
„Last December we voluntarily shut down our operations, because we decided our customers' trust was worth more than a few months of revenue. Today shows we were right. We chose to meet one of Europe's toughest regimes head-on rather than move offshore — and that choice is what this licence represents.”
— Attila Mogyorósi, Co-founder & CEO
„Behind this licence lie sixteen months of intensive work and ten years of building. From now on we can finally focus on what matters — our customers and our products — without ever again having to prove that we run a legitimate business. The team is already working on the relaunch: our aim is to bring customers back as quickly as possible, at the standard they know, but with a broader range of services than before.”
— Gábor Galántai, Co-founder
What's next
With the authorisation in hand, CoinCash has begun preparing to resume operations. Services will return gradually over the coming months, and existing customers will be notified directly about timing. Thanks to the breadth of the licence, the relaunched offering will reach beyond exchange to include custody, advice and portfolio management over time.
About CoinCash
CoinCash, operated by Tiwala Solutions Kft. (a Hungarian limited company), is a wholly Hungarian-owned crypto-asset service provider founded in 2017. As of 20 July 2026 it is authorised by the National Bank of Hungary (decision no. H-EN-III-450/2026) to provide crypto-asset services under the EU's MiCA Regulation.
