The Ukrainian parliament passed a second reading law on Wednesday to legalize and regulate cryptocurrency and other virtual assets such as tokens.
The bill, approved by 276 legislators, will come into force after being signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and become law that enables the protection of virtual assets from fraud.
According to official figures, daily virtual asset sales across the country are $ 37,000. The government believes the legislation would make crypto safer and more legal to attract more investors to participate.
“Few countries in the world have legalized crypto assets – Germany, Luxembourg, Singapore. Ukraine will be one of them. “ That said Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian minister for digital transformation.
In Ukraine, virtual assets in Ukraine are not protected by local law. Residents are not allowed to use crypto as a means of payment or to exchange goods or services, with the exception of the hryvnia, the legal tender in Ukraine. According to the report, Ukrainians can only trade or operate cryptocurrency through local or Ukraine-registered foreign exchange platforms.
Experts argue that this is a crucial milestone for Ukraine as the draft law interprets the definition of virtual assets “as intangible assets in the form of digital data”, also defines terminology such as “wallet” for virtual currency or private key; but also enable the country to regulate the crypto market in the future.
To prevent illegal money laundering activities, crypto companies wishing to register must report their activities to the authority.
Local media, citing an official source, said the Kiev government plans to open the crypto market to investors and the corporate sector in the next year when the Tax Code and Civil Code are amended and ready.
Despite the current regulators, the government prefers to introduce more guard dogs to give permits to crypto businesses.
Ukraine intends to expand the use of crypto across the country. Last month, the government announced that it would pay workers salaries in central bank digital currency.
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