09/12/2021
...The train is moving!!!
is the latest country to legalize bitcoin as the cryptocurrency slowly goes global.
Ukraine is the fifth country in as many weeks to lay down some ground rules for the cryptocurrency market, a sign that governments around the world are realizing that bitcoin is here to stay.
In a nearly unanimous vote, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a law that legalizes and regulates . The bill was set in motion in 2020 – and heads to the desk of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Until today, crypto in Ukraine has existed in a legal gray area.
Locals were allowed to buy and exchange virtual currencies, but companies and exchanges dealing in crypto were often under close watch by law enforcement.
According to the Kyiv Post, authorities have trended toward taking a combative stance when it comes to virtual cash, regarding it as a “scam,” raiding crypto-related businesses, and “often confiscating expensive equipment without any grounds.”
In August, for example, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) blocked a network of what it called “clandestine cryptocurrency exchanges” running in the capital city Kyiv. The SBU claimed these exchanges were facilitating money laundering and providing anonymity of transactions.
The new legislation also spells out certain protections against fraud for those who own bitcoin and other , and in a first for Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada unicameral parliament, lawmakers have taken a stab at defining core terminology in the world of crypto. If signed by the president, virtual assets, digital wallets and private keys are terms that will be enshrined in Ukrainian law.
Unlike ’s move to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, Ukraine’s crypto law does not facilitate the rollout of bitcoin as a form of payment and does not put it on an equal footing with the hryvnia, the country’s national currency.
However, Thursday’s vote by the former nuclear power is part of a wider push by Kyiv to lean into .
By 2022, the country plans to open the cryptocurrency market to businesses and investors, according to the Kyiv Post. Top state officials have also been touting their crypto street cred to investors and venture capital funds in Silicon Valley.
On an official state visit to the U.S. last month, Zelenskyy spoke of Ukraine’s budding “legal innovative market for virtual assets” as a selling point for investment, and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said the country was modernizing its payment market so that its National Bank would be able to to issue digital currency. Crypto.com
