The government has the right to confiscate Bitcoin? Hungary's Ministry of Justice issued a new law

Hungary's newly introduced criminal procedure law stipulates that the government has the right to confiscate Bitcoin and other virtual currencies from any suspect, even during the early interrogation process. Experts say that the new bill, which officially entered the review stage in February this year, is based on international anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and is applicable even in the field of cryptocurrency.

Large-scale surveillance

According to expert analysis, once this bill is passed, it will completely change the entire process of criminal proceedings, and large-scale surveillance activities will also be legal in Hungary.

Based on this law, once there is "reasonable suspicion" of a suspect, government agencies have the right to conduct secret surveillance, monitor large amounts of data, and even have the right to hack into other people's mobile phones and computer devices.

The bill, proposed by the Hungarian Ministry of Justice and submitted to parliament in February, would allow the government to seize electronic data, devices and virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

It is reported that the parliament will pass the new criminal procedure law in June this year.

The new regulations clearly stipulate that, based on reasonable suspicion, government agencies have the right to confiscate or seize a suspect's virtual currency as well as electronic data such as digital keys, wallet addresses and digital wallet seeds.

Target customers

At this stage, the specific enforcement of this bill is still unknown. Although the bill also mentions the rights of suspects, it seems more likely that the government will secretly collect electronic evidence. However, according to legal experts, compared with the UK's Investigatory Powers Act, this new bill provides greater freedom and more detailed legal details.

Hungarian intelligence agencies and legal institutions will have the right to collect electronic evidence during early interrogations, and the targets of the collection are cyber criminals, money launderers, hackers, etc. This bill is based on an important premise - reasonable suspicion. That is to say, once a suspect submits electronic criminal evidence, the relevant departments will launch an investigation.