site.btaSeized Counterfeit Banknotes in 2025 Q4 Increased 14 Times From a Year Earlier

The number of counterfeit Bulgarian lev banknotes seized in the last quarter of 2025 amounted to 4,927 pieces, which is nearly 14 times more compared with the same period of 2024. This transpired from the latest BNB’s Issue and Cash Operations Review, published on the central bank’s website. By comparison, during the October–December period in 2024, the counterfeit banknotes seized by BNB totalled 352.

Of the 4,927 counterfeit Bulgarian banknotes seized in the last quarter of 2025, 4,909 had been in circulation. On a quarterly basis, an increase in seized counterfeit money is also reported, with their number rising by 2,031 compared to the third quarter of 2025.

During the period under review, the largest number of seized counterfeit banknotes were those with a denomination of BGN 50 - 4,785 pieces, or 97% of all seized counterfeit banknotes.

During the last quarter of 2025, an increase was also recorded in the number of seized banknotes from currencies other than the Bulgarian lev. The number of counterfeit euro banknotes seized during the period was 1,455 (including 168 that had circulated in the cash economy), which is 4.5 times more compared to the last quarter of 2024, when 324 counterfeit euros were seized. The number of counterfeit US dollars seized amounted to 3,105 (including 69 that had circulated in the cash economy), compared to 122 during the same period of the previous year, 2025.

The period October–December 2025 was the last quarter before Bulgaria introduced the euro as legal tender. After the end of the dual circulation period of the lev and the euro, from February 1 this year, the euro became the sole legal tender in Bulgaria.

By the end of 2025, levs in circulation had reached BGN 19.7 billion. In the last quarter alone, they decreased by BGN 7.45 billion, or 27.4% compared to the previous quarter. The largest decrease during the last quarter of 2025 was recorded in December, a drop of BGN 4.08 billion. Compared to the end of 2024, the total value of cash in circulation declined by 36%, or BGN 11.3 billion over one year.