TL;DR Breakdown
- Minister says that crypto will soon be made a means of payment in Ukraine
- Crypto trading to also be made legal in Ukraine
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation deputy minister has said that the country is working on a crypto bill to make crypto payment legal in the country.
Oleksandr Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister, expressed confidence while speaking stating that it would be “quite legal to pay with cryptocurrencies” in the country through platforms that allow crypto-to-fiat conversions.
Bornyakov spoke about the crypto bill during an interview on Friday with local financial publication Minfin. He stated that Ukraine’s draft bill on virtual assets “clearly states” that cryptocurrencies do not constitute legal tender in the country, only allowing crypto purchases.
However, the crypto bill allows local payment processors to provide services for converting crypto to fiat to enable payments deriving from crypto.
The deputy minister, during the interview, also revealed that the crypto bill would legitimize the process of cryptocurrency trading and reporting. He said it is expected that a whole market of intermediary services for payment of goods by cryptocurrencies, their storage, and exchange.
When Ukraine ministry recommended crypto bill adoption
Back in July, the Ministry of Digital Transformation recommended the adoption of an updated draft bill, “On Virtual Assets,” in the country during the bill second reading.
Towards that time, local e-bank announced it was planning to launch a debit card featuring Bitcoin (BTC) trading.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also last month signed another digital currency-related law, referred to as the law On Payment Services. The law officially enabled Ukraine’s central bank to issue a central bank digital currency, the digital hryvnia.
The law also required close collaboration between the Ukrainian central bank and local startups in the payment market, taking into account the private sector’s demand.
At some point in the year also, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation entered into a partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation to jointly develop a strategy for digital assets and CBDC infrastructure.
