SEPA Instant moved from nice-to-have to legal requirement. Since January 2025 every euro-area bank must be able to receive instant transfers, and since 9 October 2025 they must be able to send them too, at no extra cost compared to a normal transfer. Here is what that means in practice.
The rules now in force
An SCT Inst transfer settles in about 10 seconds, any hour, any day, weekends and holidays included. The old 100,000 euro scheme cap is gone; the rulebook no longer sets a maximum amount. Pricing must not exceed the bank's price for a standard transfer, which in most consumer accounts means free.
Verification of Payee
Since October 2025 banks must check that the name you type matches the account holder of the IBAN before the money leaves. You will see match, close match or no match. For a crypto cash-out this is a feature: when a counterparty or a desk pays you, their bank verified your name against your IBAN before sending, which kills most typo and impersonation fraud.
What still varies by bank
Banks may set their own per-transfer and per-day limits, and many let you adjust them in the app. Fraud screening can still hold a first-time or unusually large transfer for review even on instant rails. And a transfer is only instant end to end if both banks process it as SCT Inst; otherwise it falls back to a standard transfer of one business day. If an incoming payment seems slow, the practical checklist is: confirm the sender used instant rails, check your bank's inbound limits, and remember standard SEPA does not move on weekends.
Why it matters for selling crypto
The slowest leg of a peer-to-peer sale used to be the bank. With instant rails a Bitcoin sale settled by SEPA can complete, crypto released and euros in your account, within minutes of the transfer being sent. Wise and Revolut transfers ride the same rails in most cases: see selling by Wise and selling by Revolut. For the tax side of a cash-out, read our country-by-country tax guide.