Ukraine to legalise cryptocurrencies

Ukraine is edging close to make cryptocurrencies legal. There are already several attempts to draft laws to legalise the industry, but none has reached its logical conclusion.

Michell Vidyakin, Director of Strategy and Reforms Department at National Bank, opines that the state cannot take autonomous decisions in the field of cryptocurrencies apart from European norms.

He said: “These currencies have not yet been issued by any central bank. Why do not they fall into cash regulation? Because they have no physical form. Why cannot they be used as electronic money? Because they are not tied to the accounts of banks or other organisations that have a financial license. Now the process of determining the status of cryptocurrencies and the mechanism for their regulation is hampered by the lack of a unified approach in European legislation, as Ukraine aims to harmonize Ukrainian laws with European ones,”.

According to the lawyer Artem Afyan, cryptocurrencies are already mentioned in Ukrainian Classifier of Economic Activities, which already provides some legal basis at least for mining. According to Afyan, at first Ukraine completely ignored the problem of regulation, which was the best it could do at that time. However, in order cryptocurrencies business to develop further, Ukrainian law needs to explain the rules of the game. The biggest problem is the fact that there is still no official definition or explanation of the term “cryptocurrencies”.

Some good news for the industry appeared this May. The National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSCCB) will propose for consideration of the Financial Stability Board to recognise cryptocurrency as a financial instrument. This was reported by the head of the commission Timur Khromaev. In November 2017, consideration of all draft laws on legalisation of cryptocurrencies in the territory of Ukraine was postponed due to the fact that the NSCCB insisted on changing the terminology used in the documents.

Source: forklog.com