Bitcoin booms in Romania while traditional equities lose ground
Bitcoin booms in Romania
Romanian investors are increasingly turning to cryptocurrencies over traditional equities, with more than 600,000 individuals opting to place their capital in digital assets like bitcoin, according to Horia Gustă, president of Romania’s Association of Fund Administrators (AAF).
By comparison, only around 220,000 investors are currently active on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), according to Cryptopolitan.
The figures, presented at the 2025 European Conference on Financial Services in Brașov, reflect a broader trend in which new technologies are outpacing legacy financial systems, particularly in countries with complex regulatory environments.
Regulation holds back equities, crypto surges ahead
Gustă attributes the imbalance to excessive regulation in traditional markets and a lack of financial education among the population. While equity platforms like the BVB must comply with comprehensive EU directives, crypto markets have operated in a relatively unregulated space until recently, allowing them to grow rapidly.
In a move to attract further crypto activity and increase market transparency, Romanian lawmakers in November granted a temporary tax exemption on individual crypto earnings, effective until July 31, 2025. Supporters of the policy argue it will not only draw more capital into the economy but also help authorities better assess the scale of the country’s digital asset market.
Officials from Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) acknowledged that technological shifts, including artificial intelligence, are reshaping financial markets worldwide. While challenges remain—such as regulatory gaps and concerns over algorithmic bias—industry leaders expect continued transformation across the sector.
As Romania navigates the crossroads between tradition and innovation, the numbers suggest a clear preference among investors for the promise of crypto over the constraints of conventional markets.
Meanwhile, European crypto exchanges will remove non-compliant stablecoins ahead of the EU's MiCA deadline. Because of this, Coinbase delisted Tether (USDT) and five others on December 13, 2024, but will keep supporting USD Coin and EURC.
