The NBU wants the crypto industry to be regulated under the European MiCA regulation, which prohibits foreign stablecoins if their issuers do not hold an EU license. Ukraine’s main financial regulator is urging lawmakers to finalize the draft before the final vote. The central bank fears that the current version of the law would allow stablecoins and other tokens issued in countries without proper oversight of issuance to enter the country.
Some of these assets are capable of effectively functioning as electronic money, which, according to the regulator, poses a threat to financial stability and monetary sovereignty. The NBU has requested authority to assess such tokens and, if necessary, restrict their use—just as it does for tokens issued within Ukraine itself. The NBU fears that foreign cryptocurrencies will enable market participants to circumvent regulations applicable to similar Ukrainian assets.
The Central Bank called the process of drafting the bill “insufficiently transparent”—the final version was seen by the regulator only after approval by the Rada committee, and many points on which compromises had been reached were ultimately altered. For example, the National Bank agreed that, during the first stage of state regulation, access to the market would be granted only to three crypto platform operators selected through a competitive process. However, in the final version of the bill, the authority to determine the number of operators has been given to the National Securities and Stock Market Commission for the first five years.
According to the committee-approved version of the bill, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission will become the primary regulator of Ukraine’s crypto market. Taxation of cryptocurrency transactions is also changing: while the original draft imposed a standard personal income tax of 18% plus a 5% military levy on crypto asset income, the updated proposal introduces a reduced transitional rate of 5% for existing crypto assets until the end of 2028. Additionally, crypto-to-crypto exchanges are exempt from taxation.
In March 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the law on virtual assets, having previously rejected an earlier version of the document. However, the law has not yet taken effect—its implementation depends on amendments to the Tax Code that have not yet been adopted.
In early October, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) demanded that crypto companies registered in the European Union cease trading stablecoins issued by entities not registered under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). This concerns USDT from the U.S.-based company Tether and other similar tokens.