Ukraine joins growing list of countries to legalize cryptocurrency

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The European country of Ukraine has joined a growing list of countries that have given legal backing to cryptocurrencies.

A draft bill in the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has successfully passed its second and final reading as the country moves to legalize and regulate the use of cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets like tokens.

The parliament, through a near-unanimous vote on Wednesday, has now agreed to a regulated use of cryptocurrencies within the country, laying some ground rules for the global cryptocurrency market. This move came as countries are now beginning to realize that cryptos are here to stay.

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada  Mykola Lazarenko/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS
Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada
© Mykola Lazarenko/Press Office of the President of Ukraine/TASS

The bill, which now requires the assent of Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky to become law, was set in motion in 2020. With this move, Ukraine becomes the fifth country legally accepting the use of digital currencies following the adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador.

The importance of this bill

Up until now, the use of cryptocurrencies in Ukraine has existed in a legal grey area, as they have neither been forbidden nor made legal in Ukraine. Ukrainians could buy and exchange these currencies, but no laws defined them, and local courts couldn’t protect them if something eventually went wrong.

The draft law “On Virtual Assets,” Bill No. 3637, if signed into law by the president, will help the country determine how it regulates cryptos in the future. According to reports from the local newspaper, Kyiv Post, digital payment systems like cryptos have been typically regarded as a scam before now and authorities have raided crypto-related businesses even without any ground to do such.

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Although the Ukrainian parliament has not gone as far as El Salvador in accepting Bitcoin as legal tender, the draft bill will help regulate “legal relations arising in connection with the turnover of virtual assets in Ukraine, define the rights and obligations of participants in the virtual asset market, and the principles of state policy in the field of virtual assets.”

Moving forward

Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, was said to have hinted that the country was working on modernizing its payment market so that its national bank could issue digital currency. He said the government hopes to create another agency that will issue permits for crypto companies in the near future.

https://technext.ng/2021/09/07/bitcoin-losses-over-9000-in-one-day-despite-el-salvadors-official-crypto-adoption/

Countries like Germany, USA, Canada, Australia, Cuba, Singapore, and Luxembourg have all regulated cryptocurrencies and Ukraine hopes to join this list. Panama, the Central American country, might just be the next country to regulate cryptos as it’s considering working on a similar cryptocurrency draft law.


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