Cryptocurrencies will soon be a fully legal and official asset in Ukraine. The president of the invaded country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has just signed the law under which these digital currencies will become current assets which will be able to operate normally in the country.
The Ukrainian government has opted to legalize cryptocurrencies in the face of the avalanche of donations it is receiving in these currencies
The official profile of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation has shared on Twitter the announcement of the new law. According to the Ministry, “the ukrainian or foreign cryptocurrency exchanges can operate legally and banks will open accounts for crypto companies.”
Ukraine has legalized the crypto sector – @ZelenskyyUa signed a law. From now on foreign and Ukrainian cryptocurrencies exchanges will operate legally and banks will open accounts for crypto companies. It is an important step towards the development of the VA market in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/lqqO1J9r1k
– Міністерство цифрової трансформації України (@mintsyfra) March 16, 2022
In recent weeks, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country has received significant donations in cryptocurrencies. Within days of the start of the war Ukraine had already received more than 12 million euros in Bitcoins. It is now estimated that that amount may already exceed 100 million. The Ukrainian Digital Ministry has reported that the amount of donations received has been earmarked to help the armed forces, although it did not provide further details of how the money will be used.
With this regularization, the Ukrainian government aims to bring the crypto sector out of the hidden economy and incorporate its potential into the legal foreign exchange market. So far, cryptocurrencies were not technically illegal in Ukraine. However, cryptocurrency operators were operating in a confusing and illegal framework. This meant that neither individuals nor companies could “officially” own or exchange this type of asset.
In recent years there had been a boom in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries in the use of cryptocurrencies to launder money from criminal activities. This had led the authorities to distrust the sector and take measures to control its activity. Now, faced with the seriousness of a war, the government has chosen to regularize these assets to strengthen its coffers.
