The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine published a new draft bill, “On Virtual Assets,” that aims to determine the legal status of cryptocurrencies. The law would regulate the circulation and issuance of crypto in the country. The current version of the published bill is not final and is open for discussion by the crypto community until June 5, 2020. The crypto industry in Ukraine is still in the grey zone as there are no specific laws regulating the industry.
The proposed laws allow exchanges to open bank accounts.
According to one of the new draft bill co-authors, the primary reason for the initiative is to enable local crypto firms like exchanges to open bank accounts. Michael Chobanian, the president of the Bitcoin Association Ukraine, said that crypto exchanges are still unable to set up a bank account in Ukraine to date. Chobanian co-authored the new bill alongside state authorities, law firms, and industry players. The proposed draft bill is designed to move the crypto industry out of the “grey zone” and finally bring legal presence to companies in Ukraine.
Ukraine proposes crypto laws in response to FATF’s guidelines.
The Financial Action Task Force proposed guidelines regarding the crypto regulations around the world last year and asked its member countries to act on them. Since then, several countries around the world have implemented crypto regulations based on those guidelines. Ukraine has also been considering laws to regulate crypto assets for the past four years. Initially, the reports on Ukrainian crypto regulation came in late 2015, when the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced plans to define Bitcoin’s legal status by January 2016. Similar to Russia, none of the existing crypto legislation initiatives have been adopted so far in the country.
As reported earlier, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine reportedly partnered with one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Binance, to collaborate on local crypto legislation.
