Bitcoin Magazine

Ukraine Central Bank Refuses to Back Crypto Bill Cleared for Second Reading

Ukraine’s central bank will not support a crypto market bill that a parliamentary committee cleared for a final vote, warning that the draft leaves foreign tokens that act like electronic money outside its control and risks monetary sovereignty.

The National Bank of Ukraine said in a Nov. 4 statement that Draft Law No. 10225-d on the circulation of virtual assets, recommended by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy for adoption in the second reading and as a whole, fails to reflect compromises struck during drafting.

The NBU said it received the final text only late the evening before the committee vote and that the process “was not sufficiently transparent.” Deputy Governor Oleksii Shaban raised the bank’s objections at the committee meeting, but the NBU said the format did not allow a full debate.

Ukraine already legalized a framework for virtual assets in 2022. The new bill is meant to put that market under detailed rules modeled on the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA, and on International Monetary Fund recommendations. The NBU says it supports that direction in principle.

First, the draft would let foreign tokens into Ukraine even when they function as electronic money but face no matching supervision in the countries where they are issued. That, the NBU said, threatens monetary sovereignty, the transmission of monetary policy, payment infrastructure and financial stability.

The bank wants the same power it has over domestically issued tokens: the authority to assess those foreign assets and, when needed, restrict their circulation in Ukraine.

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