Cryptocurrency Legalised in Ukraine as Country Attempts to Make Market Transparent, Prevent Frauds

Cryptocurrency has been legalised in Ukraine as its parliament on September 8 passed a law that will also regulate virtual assets. In the process, it became the fifth country in the world to pass a law that talks about legalising and regulating cryptocurrency. Governments around the world are slowly coming to terms with the importance, future prospects, and scope of demand for cryptocurrency. In Ukraine, 276 lawmakers supported the legal draft and voted for the bill to legalise cryptocurrency. Prior to this, there were no set laws to define the legality or value of the cryptocurrency in Ukraine.

As reported by Kyiv Post, if the law is signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, it will protect the owners of virtual assets and exchange platforms from fraud. With this, Ukraine seems to have put itself in a safer position in terms of dealing with cryptocurrency within the country.

The report further states that Ukraine has planned to open the cryptocurrency market for investors and business practices in the future after coming up with this law. Experts are saying that the approved bill is crucial, as it shows virtual assets as intangible in the form of electronic data. It also talks about “wallet for virtual currency” and “private key,” some of the terms that are new to Ukraine's legislation.

According to the law, the main regulators of the virtual assets market are Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation, the National Bank of Ukraine, and the National Securities Commission.

According to the country's Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, the daily turnover of virtual assets in the country is $37,000 (roughly Rs. 27 lakhs) and it is very popular among the residents of the country. Now, the system will become more transparent with the existence of this law and a greater number of Ukrainians would come forward to invest in the market.

However, despite all this, experts are worried that too many rules coming along with the law may put pressure on businesses. CEO of virtual asset exchange platform Binaryx, Oleg Kurchenko, said, “Some crypto investors could leave the country as they would not be able to trust the state at this point of time.”

Earlier this week, El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. As of September 10, Bitcoin price in India stood at Rs. 36.7 lakhs.