HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: Pál Rahóty, Lakatos, Köves & Partners
10.6 Staking In Hungary (under MiCA), the provision of crypto-asset staking services is regulated where it is offered as a service to clients by a centralised provider. If a plat - form pools or stakes clients’ crypto-assets on their behalf and distributes rewards, it will typically qualify as a CASP and require MiCA authorisation Purely self-staking by individuals (where users stake directly on a protocol without an intermediary) is not itself regulated, but once a service provider interme - diates, pools or manages staking for clients, MiCA In Hungary (under MiCA), crypto-asset lending pro - vided as a service (eg, platforms lending out clients’ crypto or granting crypto-backed loans) is regulated where it qualifies as a crypto-asset service – typically involving custody and administration of crypto-assets or the operation of a trading/lending platform – and requires authorisation as a CASP, with conduct, gov - ernance, safeguarding, disclosure and AML obliga - tions. If the structure resembles traditional credit provision in fiat (eg, fiat loans secured by crypto collateral), domestic lending laws and consumer credit rules may also apply. Pure peer-to-peer arrangements without an identifiable intermediary may fall outside direct licensing, but most commercial crypto lending plat - forms operating professionally are regulated under MiCA and AML frameworks. 10.8 Cryptocurrency Derivatives In Hungary, cryptocurrency derivatives are regulated as financial instruments under MiFID II, because deriv - atives qualify as financial instruments regardless of the nature of the underlying asset. Firms offering, broker - ing or executing crypto-derivatives must therefore be authorised as investment firms or credit institutions. 10.9 Decentralised Finance (DeFi) conduct and custody rules apply. 10.7 Crypto-Related Lending There is no standalone DeFi regulation in Hungary; instead, existing EU frameworks apply based on func - tion and control. If a crypto-asset qualifies as a finan - cial instrument, MiFID II applies; if it is an in-scope
crypto-asset, MiCA applies to persons providing ser - vices “on a professional basis”. A platform cannot avoid regulation simply by labelling itself “DeFi”. If there is an identifiable operator, devel - oper, governance body or frontend provider facilitating trading, regulators may treat that party as a regulated service provider (eg, CASP or investment firm). 10.10 Regulation of Funds In Hungary, funds investing in blockchain assets are regulated based on their legal structure, not the asset alone. UCITS and AIFs are governed by the EU UCITS Directive or AIFMD and supervised by the MNB. The fund manager remains the regulated entity responsi - ble for compliance. 10.11 Virtual Currencies The term “virtual currencies” is an older AML-driven concept referring mainly to cryptocurrencies used as a means of exchange (eg, Bitcoin) and focuses on AML/ CFT obligations. By contrast, “crypto-assets” under MiCA is a broader regulatory category covering asset- referenced tokens, e-money tokens, and other tokens with specific issuer and service-provider rules. 10.12 NFTs In Hungary (under EU MiCA), NFTs are generally out - side the regulatory perimeter if they are truly unique and non-fungible, as MiCA excludes genuinely unique tokens from its scope. However, if NFTs are issued in large series, are fractionalised or function economi - cally like transferable financial instruments or crypto- assets, they may fall within MiCA or MiFID II. 10.13 Stablecoins In Hungary, stablecoins are regulated under the EU MiCA framework, where asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens are subject to authorisation, governance and disclosure requirements, strict rules on reserve asset backing and (for e-money tokens) a right of redemption at par value, typically requiring issuance by a credit institution or authorised e-money institution.
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