Bitcoin Forum

In Greece recently there was a court case that was initiated years ago after an individual asked the government to provide instructions on how to tax his crypto.

Courts threw the ball to the tax authority because so far they had avoided to issue a clear guideline. And what did they say?
Now in Greece it's officially recognised as legal to sell your crypto for real money. But there's a big caveat.

So long as the government doesn't issue a law on how cryptocurrency should be taxed, smh money gotten from crypto sales can not be used to buy assets or as collateral for loans.

You don't have to say to the government how much you made from crypto sales, but you also can't use it for serious stuff like buying houses, businesses, getting loans, getting cars, boats, or even buy anything over 500€.. 


Of course this is an unenforceable law but it also means that there will never be a big crypto business in Greece because they can't go official.

It's one of the most absurd treatments I've seen a state having towards crypto. They're basically telling you that if you want to trade crypto you have to do everything under the table since we don't want to bother with texting you or recognizing your gains.

I think the alternatives for those who are in such countries is trade with people that aren't from that same country, let say, they can trade on this forum and then such person sends them the equivalent in their currency to them while they received that through their local banks to enable them buy whatever they feels like buying. Or they can as well run everything under the table as you said without the government knowing where is the source of funds otherwise such assets could be useless to the owner, but again, I think p2p could be best suitable for such people in that country since they are carefully monitoring every cryptocurrency transactions.

Why don’t you just convert it into fiat? Either way, there’s still some profit made and then you can use it to buy houses or whatever asset you want to. But how does that work with the law? Will they suddenly acknowledge the profit if it’s in fiat already? It’s still confusing and you never know what can the government do to you since they do not have clear guidelines. Meaning they can just twist it into anything they want.

Absurd not only for coming up with such a funny regulation but also for not taking even a little time and effort to at least produce something logical. In a way, they're taking away the legal tender status of their money over something that's not even illegal. If something is legally allowed to be exchanged for money, then the proceeds are obtained in a legal way. Why can't it, then, be spent?

Anyway, nobody would probably take it seriously. There are a hundred ways to go around that.

This means that people in Greece who want to buy tangible assets from cryptocurrency profits must find or have an underlying transaction. This is very easy to do in my country; many people who want to launder their money conduct fictitious exports (in addition to obtaining export tax benefits, incoming funds are safe and not blocked). In my country, money flows out easily, but incoming funds are always strictly monitored, not for tax reasons, but to curb money laundering.

There are cross-border syndicates collaborating to provide fictitious import and export services. For countries that legalize cross-border cryptocurrency transactions, I haven't yet checked whether their export or import declarations include a cryptocurrency option.

Alright, the only solution is lying if you want.

You can use any method, in the end it's lie, you can claim if you're selling digital artwork in upwork, you can claim if you have an export business, you can claim if you work in other country (you sold your coins on other country) etc.

I'm someone who have a minimalist lifestyle and for me Bitcoin is the best investment, so if I were you, I can accept that regulation. I only sell very tiny amount to pay bills and hold the most.

My advice you should find other jobs which pay you in fiat.

You've got a point that it's frustrating to deal with regulations on crypto. Many people choose to hold their crypto long term and only sell small amounts for bills which aligns with a minimalist approach and avoids a lot of headaches.
However deliberately misrepresenting the source of your funds to buy assets is a huge legal risk. Creating a fake paper trail to clean money from crypto could be considered money laundering, and the penalties for that are severe, including fines and prison time.
A safer, more straightforward strategy is to get a traditional job for your fiat income. This keeps your crypto a separate investment and gives you a legitimate source of funds to buy assets without any legal concerns. It's a way to have your cake and eat it too, without the risk.

That's an absurd kind of law. There's no exact rule on how crypto people should thrive in there. But there will be modifications of that kind of rule if there's a legal basis already or the crypto community there demands to have a better treatment on how they can spend their crypto profits.

Yeah, it's like you've got some money from crypto but you can't buy things you like to see your hard work.

What if these crypto people don't declare from where they've gotten their money? and they're going to make it look like they've taken it from their savings or simply inheritance from their parents or grandpas.

From the OP, it was stated clearly that you wouldn't use the money you got from such sales for buying assets or collateral for loans, even if you convert it to fiat, you sold the crypto to the exchange and they gave you fiat, so it is still within the same category. I feel the best way is to reach agreements with trusted people in another country to buy your crypto while they send the proceeds to you in a bank account without crypto trace.

This law is not friendly at all and looks more to me like an indirect ban since it is being victimized legally.

Exactly, the government made it a one way road for those that want to cash out crypto gains to lie in their tax forms so they can have access to financial assets.
For instance, if I put in my tax form that I made money from selling any stock on any of the world's stock markets, in Greece it's legal income. And for stock markets in the EU, USA and Canada which are the most common, the tax on gains is even 0%! So I could just state in my tax form that I made some gains from selling a stock that performed well and then all my gains are legally gotten cash that can be used to deposit in a bank account, placed as collateral, buy a house, fund a business or whatnot.

Crypto on the other hand can be sold legally, won't be taxed, but since the government doesn't want it in tax forms you can't use it for anything serious legally. So the simple solution is to just lie indeed...

Greece's position on crypto is like a puzzle. It is two sided, one, marketing crypto for real money is officially legal now. Secondly, because there is no clear tax framework, the government refuses you from making use of the money for something important like house, loans, cars, even purchases worth €500.

They won't tax your profits and still won't allow you use them. People are compelled to operate in a legal grey zone. This is discouraging investment or innovation in the area and makes difficult for big scale crypto business to thrive openly in Greece.

Rather than supervising crypto, the state is putting it aside, making it an underground activity. This is a missed opportunity and a counterproductive method in a modern economy that's only going forward

You forgot to provide a link, A post like this needs reference so it doesn't sound like allegations or misquote.
I read this online :
I have searched the internet to see:

It will be beneficial if the link to this is shared so we know how genuine this information is. I am just wondering how a country would legalize crypto currency and place a restriction on how to spend the proceeds.
 

OP would have dropped a link to a material that would have explained this law further. But it seems you cannot convert your crypto to fiat and use to to buy any assets. Any money made from crypto shouldn't be used in Greece to buy anything useful. What  do the state expect crypto owners to use it for, maybe it should be spent on pleasure, gambling or expensive vacations.

The government is simply encouraging crypto users to break the law. I guess there will be firms and experienced individuals who will serve as middlemen to help people buy asset with crypto thereby bypassing government sanctions.

I think it's not a big deal to not allow the Greek to purchase anything with cryptocurrency as that can't stop them proceeding with getting property. As far as I know, the Greece is still far away from adopting Bitcoin or as well used it for reserve as others are doing but it's certain that different countries has different policies safeguarding their citizens, maybe that's for best interest for the Greek.

But what I know for sure in the future is that, this law will be changed when the viral adoption of crypto has adorned on every nation, I know that for sure.

Basically they are treating all crypto profits like they were drug money. That’s all I understand from this. They are OK with it as long as you are spending your profits to fill your stomach and anything else is forbidden because they can’t bother to check the source of the funds.

It makes some sense from their point of view because no government owns the bitcoin infrastructure and if the person in question knew how to hide his tracks, nobody will be able to track the origin of the funds. More importantly, even if the government had people under payroll to do that, what will be their responsibility? Will they only do btc chain analysis or will they do btc, eth, doge, ltc, bch and all the others as well? The gov neither has a budget for this and nor the responsibility. If btc network was owned by a friendly country like another European country say italy, they could have asked information from them but that’s not possible with crypto.

I have searched the internet for this information and i cannot find it. It is either of two things, either i haven't searched well enough, or this news is fake. I am leaning towards the latter. OP can you post the source of this information because i cannot find it. I have also searched the internet and i can see that Greece has recently implemented  a capital gains tax on crypto profits.

Has anyone here found a source to this news?

I would say the OP's claim is worth very little without a source. ChatGPT (obviously not 100% reliable source, but still) says there is no known government that has ever passed legislation saying that you can legally sell crypto into fiat and then restrict how the fiat is used. Money is fungible, that's the whole point. This July 2025 blog (https://www.sanctionscanner.com/blog/cryptocurrency-regulations-in-greece-1170) mentions nothing of what the OP states.

The only issue is that often in home buying, countries will have strict AML policies that require the buyer provides proof of the source of funds, even when no financing is involved. If the cash came from a crypto sale, this may require you provide proof of the sale made on an exchange (or OTC) and proof of how the crypto was purchased.

In essence, all the ideals of bitcoin where value can exchange hands without the need for personal information or intermediaries is removed by arbitrary government prying. But what else is new...

The whole law is strange If in Greece you are allowed to sell your Crypto-currency for money then how can they determine what you used you money for. I don't understand the Greece financial system but if I sell my Crypto-currency for money will they government place a tag or note that this money was gotten from the sale of Crypto-currency.
How is the law that you can use money gotten from Crypto-currency to buy anything tangible going to be enforced I am curious to find out how it works over there in Greece.

This stance by the Greek government reminds me of a funny story about a police officer who told his thief friend, "You can steal and do whatever you want, just don't let me see you." he mean you can do everything in secret, but if I see you, I'll put you in jail!

This is a strange stance by the government.Why don't they legislate clear and explicit cryptocurrency regulations? What's preventing them from doing so?

That’s fine but why are they making gains from crypto not realistically something to be proud of or big enough to make a good living from, this is bad. They are just making the people of the country not to focus or spend their time trying to build wealth through crypto and even made it like a tax free asset which the rules made from them will favour them the more who never ventured into crypto. The best people from that region could do is to try and get assets from their earning in crypto in other neighbouring countries that accepts them, or trade it outside of their countries to get maximum gain and be used for asset buying in the country after successfully converting into their fiat. This rules are cruel, and doesn’t speak well of them as crypto friendly country.

Thank God you used the word wealth, tell me what will happen in someone life when they are rich or wealthy? One thing is certain here, they can leave the country and go to another.

You don't have to stay in the same country where you generate your wealth, making it is the goal and the goal came to past, so just leave and go create or build your business in another country, problem solved.

If something doesn't have a trace it doesn't exist, I am not saying anyone should do as I do, there was a time that crypto was banned in my country, I bought everything at the time using peer to peer and kept ever in hardware wallet, no one knew I was into crypto.

Having crypto and escaping your harsh country is the easiest.

The Greek, government stance on cryptocurrency is very absurd, I've never heard anything like it before, maybe the government is too lazy to regulate crypto tax law in their country. How can they allow their citizens to trade cryptocurrency but they can't use profit from it to buy any tangible things? They are just tempting the Greek people who are into cryptocurrency to find ways around to indirectly use their crypto gains to buy tangible assets while they look the other way. I wonder if their justice system will have a moral ground to prosecute anybody that is found guilty of manoeuvering their way to use crypto funds and profits to buy assets in their country.

It's probably going to be a loss for them because those who may wish to do business with cryptocurrencies, or think of starting a startup or something that involves cryptocurrencies, they will probably move to a country that allows them to do that without any problems, such as the UAE, which is very friendly when it comes to crypto and people from other countries moving there to run their businesses because they know it's going to grow their economy because of the money they can generate from these businesses, and it will also grow their technological infrastructure as well in the long run.

Greece or any other country doing this are going to regret it in the long run, because they are basically trying to suppress the technology and stop its growth, but they don't understand that the technology won't stop by doing this, but this is only going to cost their economy a boost that they could get if they were a bit more generous towards it if their people are actually interested in it.

Governments are mostly selfish, they barely think about the well-being of the country or the people, all they do is directly or indirectly to empower themselves.

I don't think citizens will emigrate from Greece and bear the costs of traveling and living in another country just to manage their crypto assets, unless they are wealthy and own millions of dollars in crypto assets. Greece doesn't prohibit cryptocurrencies, it simply doesn't have regulatory laws.

However, The Greek government is the big loser in the end because it will lose the taxes generated by these cryptocurrencies, as well as the significant investments that could come from abroad.

those restrictions dont need enforcement(in court). they just need real estate agents to do their job and ask the purchaser for the source of their money. and when revealed its crypto earnings, decline the real estate sale..

same with loans.. a bank does not need a court case(enforcement) they just need to decline recognising collateral that is crypto based when doing loan agreements

..
now imagine this..
if elon musk wanted to open a tesla car/battery farm in greece, but now cant use his $xb of crypto as collateral to get a greek loan for the building of the factory.. nor can he use any sell of bitcoin profits to just self fund a building.. so now greece doesnt get a foothold on EV
many countries are using their own sovereign funds to establish bitcoin reserves. but greece wont recognise those reserves as collateral for international loans/trade deals

Sounds like total nonsense to me.
If you really want to report your cryptocurrency sales to your government, go for it.  ;D I would never do such thing.
How can the government prove that my money comes from cryptocurrency sales, when I haven't disclosed this voluntarily?
What's the point of not being allowed to use the money from crypto sales to buy non-crypto financial assets and even real estate.
The government is supposed to stimulate the economy by letting everyone buy and sell whatever their want(excluding guns, drugs and other illegal stuff). Telling the citizens "don't buy this and don't buy that with your money" is the opposite of stimulating the economy.
Bigger economic growth means more tax revenue, but some governments are simply stupid.

like i keep telling those around me, if you earn in crypto, do not tell anyone, just take good care of your health, go on vacation and enjoy your self. The world is evil to tell any one your source. Especially those of us from Africa, where we have bad leaders that sees crypto as scam, many countries in Africa place ban on crypto at a time serious countries are embracing crypto reserve. This is why Africa is way backward, we have more analog leaders.

I will never withdraw my crypto money to invest in Real estate or other stuff, this decision is influence by the country i reside. Once you start investing on physical stuff, you might be call for questioning by the security agency. so to avoid problem, just enjoy your crypto money on low key, and buy more dip to enjoy more tomorrow.

Why can't we use the money from cryptocurrency in getting any of these, knowing that it's an acceptable medium of payment, being a digital currency does not limit bitcoin to how far it can go or the extent at which we can apply it on our daily use, bitcoin can be used the same way we apply the use of fiat currency and has more proficiencies than the traditional currency if utilized the right way.

Loan part is tough, because as a collateral, the bank has to hold it if you want to do that. Whereas, if you owned a home, and use it as a collateral, then you keep using the same home while paying the debt. That's the difference, ownership while being used. This is why I am pretty sure that people would not use crypto for any kind of collateral, why would they?

I mean like I said, I should own the thing I show as my alternative payment, and if I can do that with a home, and not just give the home to bank while I pay the loan back, then I shouldn't do that with crypto neither. But they take the crypto, hence it makes no sense to use it as such. Rest can be done though, other parts are stuff I do not see any trouble with at all.

But they will know how much our money comes from crypto through the exchange that I use. We cannot spend something directly before turning it into fiat.
So far, it has not been thought of how they cannot use the results obtained from the sale of crypto assets because it hasn't become an obstacle for me.
Even so far the business that I am running I can say that the initial capital is originally from the sale of crypto assets.

This makes no sense at all... because crypto is legal but the profits cannot be used to buy anything there, which means it's the same as illegal crypto, so this law is completely absurd. 

But fortunately, my country is still quite crypto-friendly, so we are still free to use it for anything as long as it has been converted to fiat, but the government is now imposing high taxes on crypto users, but that's not a problem as long as it doesn't complicate things like in your country.

Honestly, I'm confused about how to handle your country's situation with crypto wealth but not being able to buy any assets. Maybe the way to do it is to do it secretly without the government knowing.

How does the government take absolute control of that? Does anyone there in Greece have owe the governments explanations of where you got the money you want to use to buy those properties or assets?
If yes you've to give an account of what you do for a living that could fetch you that money, how about investors who diversifies on stocks and tech, can't they use the physical assets as a coverup? I'm just being skeptic about how the government can effectively put this laws can put crypto as an asset captive from buying other assets if only parties are agreed to pay and accept payments with crypto where it is legal.
Or what if the investor have to trade/exchange the crypto asset to fiat before facilitating on the physical assets purchase, would it be legally accepted? If yes then it's still cool because there're some governments that's already anti crypto with all means by laws. Maybe we hope to see what the future has in close time. Maybe they'd grow up.

OP, I also have sometimes thought that I wont be able to use crypto because of some limitations. First time that idea came to me when Binance stopped supporting their crypto cards in Europe. I was so used to using it; it sort of a alternative adoption, because I had crypto there and used card to pay everywhere. It was rather annoying, because it wasnt easy to find alternative, safe and stable way to cash out crypto.

So the effect of this law is that investors will be scared away. Projects that would have brought employment opportunities and increased the tax revenue of the country will move to other crypto-friendly locations. 


The issue here is the source of the money. According the OP you are not allowed to use funds that were gotten from crypto assets. Fiat obtained from the sale of crypto assets is barred from being used to buy any asset that is higher than 500 euros.

Same here. I have a day job and earning on crypto also as side hustle. No one in my friends and family know that I am into cryptocurrencies amd earning from it. I tried telling them once about it they are not eager to learn crypto but only wants the money.


This is also my plan. What I intend to do is I sell or comvert my assets in crypto to stablecoin then sell it p2p. There are p2p sellers here in our country who do meetups when you want to buy or sell huge amount of crypto. Then after I got the cash, I will use it to buy tangible assets like real estate and gold to diversify my investments.

Uncertainty in cryptocurrency regulation creates serious barriers for its use and growth, but for many individual users who are not dealing with significant amounts of money, it can be a helpful grey area, in which you don't have to worry over taxes. Honestly, I'd be fine with that kind of a situation. But when it comes to proper adoption and to operations of crypto businesses, such laws block the full adoption of crypto in the economy. That means some would choose to do their businesses elsewhere, and some will go into the shadow economy. In both scenarios, the state is losing sources of income, and the national economy is suffering.

But buying of assets with your crypto can still happen between two crypto investors without the knowledge of the Greece government so I don't see any problem here, and I can easily turn my crypto currency to fiat and still do whatever I want to do so the government is still at loss. This is the most absurd thing I've ever seen and the Greek government will only end up making their citizens that are involved in crypto to find new ways to use their crypto to buy assets in secret under the nose of the government. And the Greek government should be ready to record huge losses for this ridiculous law because even foreign investors in the country that uses crypto will start moving out of the country.

Of course there is a source, there are plenty of sources. Here's a news article from a Greek site that focuses on local finance and laws.

https://www.dnews.gr/eidhseis/oikonomia/465998/tekmiria-i-eforia-den-anagnorizei-to-eisodima-apo-yperaksia-metavivasis-kryptonomismaton

Greece isn't a tiny country, we have plenty of sources that cover local matters. But also there's little to no international interest on these matters so it's hard to find coverage other than in Greek.


Are you for real? Don't bring AI slop into this.  ??? ???

This can actually be used to your advantage in many ways and they might be doing people a favor by not taxing it. There are a lot of creative, but also perfectly legal, accountants out there and citizens of Greece have access to the whole of the EU. If as you claim there is a 500 euro spend limit per item, then you can still do a lot - you'd be able to rent a place at whatever price you like (as you will not own it's not an asset) and do things like leasing a car if you can convince the dealer that you've got funds in the bank and lots of liquidity. If you decide to do these things in another part of Europe the Greek tax authority is likely to have even less information and you can potentially claim residency elsewhere after a while.

You can't buy any assets directly through crypto, for example, crypto is still illegal in my country, but we have an opportunity for p2p transactions where we can sell our crypto and get our local money and with that local money we can buy anything. Buying something directly through crypto and selling that crypto and converting it into local currency and buying something with that is the same thing as credit crypto. Because that money is coming from crypto. People trust and invest in crypto a lot here, but it hasn't reached the point where it can be directly exchanged for any asset. But it will be in the future.

This is not easy feasible because in Greece a recent law following EU legislation has made it so transactions over 500 EUR can not happen in cash legally. This means that any business can not sell you anything with a large cash transaction or they risk large fines and potential closure.

Of course you can buy with individuals but also in these cases enforcement can catch up in the future. For instance, when you transfer the title of a car the transaction can be in cash still as there's no enforcement. But since the transfer is visible to the government they could start retroactive enforcement for the last 5 years anytime... It's a crazy thing to consider. Of course I'd still do a car purchase P2P but a house? I'm not so sure if I'd take the risk.

I would say p2p part is really not good for the time being. There are other nations that allows you to do it, meaning you can have a bank account in that nation, and then send it to your own nations bank account which would not be an issue.

For example, go open an Estonian bank account, you can do that easily, and then, when you take out the crypto there, then you send it to our own bank account in your nation, simple as that. Still doesn't require p2p. I am 100% sure that we are not going to see this change, and it's very important that we are not seeing how it would be an issue for us at the time. We need to just make some money with time, and if we do, then after we already have the money, rest will not be an issue.

This is really the main point, isn't it?

There will always be dumb politicians making dumb laws which cannot be realistically enforced. And those dumb laws will be scrapped over time, once they realize it. How many such dumb laws have always existed since the dawn of mankind. That does not mean we should panic over them each and every time. The only time there is a need to panic if the law can actually do what it is meant to do.

One of the things I have known from watching the government is the that when they don't understand indepth about something what they do is to resort to making a very ambiguous rule or they totally go against it.

And you know what, I don't even blame most times, it is not their fault. It is just that there are a lot of conservatives who are in government that do not understand new technologies and when they take decisions, they want to do it to protect the government itself.

In this, my opinion is that it is not going to be long term as long as there can be some people who understand crypto well enough that can have a high level advocacy meetings with the government to clearly help them to understand cryptocurrency.

Wait, you can sell crypto for money and use the money to buy assets of any kind, but you can't use the crypto to buy assets without liquidating it for cash beforehand? Or no you are saying that I can't use the money from crypto sales actually, but this law or rule is bound to fail or will at least entail a plethora of legal issues and trials. I have heard that Greece administrative sector is not the most efficient, now I know why.

Has the last word been spoken about this? If this is like a preliminary guideline, it could easily be overthrown soon because they will run into all the problems one can imagine. Perhaps some court gave the government a deadline until when they have to pass a regulatory tax framework. Otherwise crypto sellers will find ways to use their money.

If I sell BTC in Greece and the money hits my bank account and I then go to a car dealer and buy a car, what's going to happen? Is the bank going to conduct an investigation before they process the transaction for the car? I agree that this unenforceable.

The Greek government just wants to complicate things for crypto users. They don't want to let them be, and they also don't want to ban crypto, and I just hope they won't come back to fight what they are pushing the people into in the near future, because this move alone shows that they are indirectly pushing people to commit the crime of forgery. You can't tell me I'm allowed to make money but can't use that same money to get what I want in the country where I'm a legal citizen. I will definitely find my way around.

I think the Greek government are being selfish with this demands and they are doing so such that they can be able to fall back each time they want to. Must everything come under the table before approval, it doesn't make sense but rather they are portraying a high sign of greed mixed with power.