Sirlibz
The ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine released a cryptocurrency draft bill on Virtual Assets on May 18th. The Bill announced will determine the legal status of crypto or virtual assets and also help regulate the procedures for issuing and circulating virtual assets. The present bill released is not active (is not final) yet as discussions and suggestions are welcomed from the public, the bill can then be reviewed and updated. To send your suggestion send an email to [email protected] or send a mail to the postal office address 0315 Kyiv, St. Business, June 24 to 5,2020.
Here is a copy of the draft bill written in Ukrainian, an English copy would be uploaded when found.
Reasons for the Bill
Micheal Chobanian, the President of Bitcoin Association Ukraine, said that exchanges are not allowed to own bank accounts.
The new draft bill will help the Crypto industry get recognised as legal and not harmful, this will by extension help all other Crypto companies in Ukraine and other parts of the world.
The bill states that all involved in the Crypto industry ranging from Crypto firms like exchanges, issuers and users have a legal right to open and operate a bank account even owning accounts in other financial institutions.
CRITERIA
The draft law explained that local firms that aim at operating a Fiat to crypto exchange or business will have to register first with the ministry.
Andriy Khavryuchenko, tweeted out that the Ukraine Bill on Virtual Asset makes all Crypto wallets in Ukraine illegal, unless they register in the Digital Transformation office.
So basically if you operate without a registry, conducting transactions with Fiat and crypto without registering with the Digital Transformation Office, the Law sees it as an illegal activity.
Another criteria to lookout for is that any crypto firm that aims at registering and becoming legalized must ensure Anti Money-Laundering or AML, and they must have KYC service among other things.
Ukraine has been looking at making a law that will regulate crypto assets for over 4 years now. Its first attempt to regulate crypto was back in 2015, this was when Verkhovana Rada of Ukraine announced plans to define the legal status of BTC by 2019. The authorities are working on at least three separate bills with one focused mainly at cryptocurrency taxation in Ukraine.
