The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine recently announced that the country is preparing to adopt “the concept” of cryptocurrency. The complete legalization of cryptos across Ukraine is scheduled by 2021. According to local news portals, the strategy of including the cryptocurrency ecosystem into the country’s legal framework will occur in two phases.
The first will focus on determining the legal status of digital assets and crypto exchange activities in Ukraine, while in the second phase, the Ministry of Economic Development will publish a draft of the provisions to be applied for the cryptocurrency regulation. In this way, Ukraine would finally turn crypto trading into a legal and regulated activity.
So far, in Ukraine, there is no clear legislation regarding cryptocurrency. However, the Ukrainian Parliament announced that in the last quarter of this year, or the first months of 2019, they would introduce a law recognizing cryptos as financial assets. This law has been in preparation since August 2018.
Ukraine government paves the way to new initiatives related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology
Also, since March of this year, the State Monitoring Service established that the country would adhere to the guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering. The provisions of the before-mentioned entity differentiate between “virtual currencies” and “electronic money,” with virtual currencies being understood as a “digital representation of a value that can be traded digitally,” while electronic money is the “digital representation of a fiat currency.”
On the other hand, a month ago the National Bank of Ukraine proposed the creation of a digital version of the country’s fiat currency, using a decentralized blockchain. According to the banking authority, the so-called e-Grivna would be part of a strategy designed to reduce the circulation of cash.
In conclusion, the Ukrainian government is developing a strategy that paves the way to new initiatives related to cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, similar to the measures adopted by Malta.
