Autor Cointelegraph By Helen Partz

Hungary is rolling back strict crypto rules as CoinCash prepares to resume services after receiving authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation.The Hungarian Parliament voted to repeal the country’s crypto validator requirement, removing mandatory third-party approval for certain crypto transactions, the Hungarian tax and legal publication Ado.hu reported on Tuesday.Finance Minister Kármán András said the government removed the validation requirement after the previous rules disrupted Hungary’s crypto market, prompting some service providers to halt operations in the country. “Due to the negative and market-shaking regulations so far, many players have terminated their services related to cryptocurrencies in Hungary, but the market is now showing signs of recovery,” he wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.The development marks a significant shift in Hungary’s crypto sector, removing an additional approval step while leaving broader licensing and compliance requirements in place.How Hungary’s crypto checks workedHungary introduced the requirement through its 2024 crypto assets law, creating a separate validation process for certain crypto conversions.The rules, which took effect on July 1, 2025, required a licensed validator to verify details including the origin of crypto assets, wallet ownership and customer information before issuing a compliance declaration.Related: Hungary to reverse crypto trading crackdown after EU scrutinyThe system added another transaction-level approval step alongside MiCA. Hungary also applied a shortened MiCA transition period for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), requiring compliance by July 1, 2025, compared with the EU’s maximum transition deadline of July 1, 2026.The stricter regulatory environment prompted some crypto platforms to suspend services in Hungary, including Budapest-based crypto platform CoinCash, which voluntarily paused operations in December 2025 while pursuing MiCA authorization.CoinCash receives Hungary’s first MiCA licenseThe National Bank of Hungary (MNB) granted CoinCash operator Tiwala Solutions authorization under the EU’s MiCA regulation on July 20, according to a company announcement reviewed by Cointelegraph.“We’re the first and only Hungarian company authorised directly by the National Bank under the EU framework,” CoinCash co-founder Gábor Galántai said in a LinkedIn post on Friday.Related: Unauthorized crypto trading now carries 2 years of prison in HungaryThe authorization covers custody, crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto exchange, transfers, investment advice and portfolio management.CoinCash said it completed a months-long compliance review before receiving approval and paused operations while preparing to meet the requirements. The company plans to gradually resume services and expand beyond trading into additional MiCA-regulated offerings.Magazine: The real reason DeFi projects that survived 2022 crash are shutting down now

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Crypto losses topped $1 billion in the first half of 2026 as the industry recorded its highest number of hacks in a six-month period, according to onchain security platform Blockaid.Ethereum and Solana recorded the largest losses from incidents affecting their networks, with roughly $332 million and $326 million in stolen funds, respectively, Blockaid said in its H1 2026 security report published Tuesday.Blockaid tracked 212 security incidents during the period, with the largest single exploit coming from KelpDAO at $292 million, while the platform verified 3.4 times as many high-threshold exploits in H1 2026 as across all of 2025.Code exploits drove Ethereum incidents, while breaches of keys and signing infrastructure accounted for most Solana losses, according to the report.Ethereum losses reflected the risks of high-value protocolsEthereum incurred the highest losses from incidents in H1 2026, with attackers primarily targeting vulnerabilities in applications built on the network.Blockaid said code exploits dominated Ethereum incidents by count, with major losses also linked to key compromises involving Humanity Protocol and StablR. CoWSwap, an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange, was the only major Ethereum incident in the report classified as a user mistake.Blockchain losses by network in the first half of 2026. Source: Blockaid.Blockaid identified several common attack methods targeting Ethereum, including bugs in bridges and smart contracts, unauthorized access to privileged accounts and market manipulation techniques.The report said Ethereum remains a major target because it hosts many of the crypto industry’s most valuable applications, including restaking platforms, stablecoins and decentralized exchanges.Solana losses surged as attackers shifted focusSolana incurred nearly as much in losses as Ethereum during the first half of 2026, a sharp increase from the roughly $127 million in stolen funds the network recorded during 2025.“2025 had $2.58 billion lost across 63 incidents, concentrated in Q1 by Bybit’s $1.5 billion, with Ethereum and Arbitrum the top chains by stolen-fund flow,” Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan told Cointelegraph.Blockchain losses by network in 2025. Source: Blockaid.The change did not stem from a rise in smart contract exploits. Instead, compromised keys accounted for more than 98% of Solana’s losses, driven largely by incidents involving Drift Protocol and Step Finance, which Blockaid linked to North Korea-linked cyber groups.Unlike Ethereum, where attackers primarily exploited vulnerabilities in protocol code, Solana incidents targeted signer infrastructure and organizational security, while a handful of code exploits involving Raydium and Volo accounted for the remaining losses.Magazine: A quantum roadmap would push Bitcoin much higher: Charles Edwards

Cointelegraph is committed to providing independent, high-quality journalism across the crypto, blockchain, AI, and fintech industries.All news, reviews, and analyses are produced with full journalistic independence and integrity. For more details on our standards and processes, please read our Editorial Policy.