War had no impact on Ukraine’s regulatory approach to crypto, Kyiv lawmaker says

A year after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine continues to work on cryptocurrency legislation, but the war has not changed its regulatory stance, according to an official in Kiev.

Ukraine has continued to follow in the EU’s footsteps in adopting laws on digital assets, Ukraine’s securities commissioner Yurii Boiko told Cointelegraph in an interview.

Boiko said Ukrainian lawmakers have been working to implement major European crypto regulations, known as the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation, or MiCA.

“The approach to the regulation of the virtual asset market has not changed during the war,” Boiko stated, adding:

“We clearly know where we should go, because our path is European integration and the introduction of better EU norms and rules in our markets. That is why we confidently go our own way and implement the MiCA regulations in the statutory plan.”

Boiko noted that the adoption of crypto legislation in Ukraine has been slowed mainly due to the need to develop necessary changes to the country’s tax and civil codes. Another factor is Ukraine’s path to European integration, the official said, adding that Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) has been working actively with international counterparts to implement regulations such as MiCA.

According to Oleksii Zhmerenetskyi, head of the parliamentary group Blockchain4Ukraine, the country’s legislature initially started work on regulating the cryptocurrency market back in October 2017.

“Unfortunately, at that time, the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation was unable to adopt a crypto-law, and only since the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation returned to consideration of it,” Zhmerenetskyi said. Lawmakers then created the Blockchain4Ukraine group together with more than 50 deputies in September 2019, he noted.

Zhmerenetskyi added that a working group under the NSSMC is currently finalizing a package of amendments to the draft law “On Virtual Assets” to adapt it to MiCA, which will be voted on by the European Parliament in April. As soon as the package is adopted and signed by the president, the NSCSM and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) will draft statutes and then Ukraine will officially launch the virtual assets market, he said.

“We plan to do this by the end of this year,” Zhmerenetskyi said.

Related: Ukraine has collected $70 million in crypto donations since the Russia conflict began

As previously reported, the Central Bank of Ukraine banned the purchase of Bitcoin (BTC) with the local currency, the Ukrainian hryvnia, in April 2022. The NBU only allowed Ukrainians to buy crypto with foreign currency and total monthly purchases did not exceed 100,000 hryvnia, or $3,300 , at the time.