Bitcoin is now legal in Ukraine as its parliament approved in final reading a bill that caters to the president’s recommendations. However, the country has not made bitcoin a legal tender.
“The new law is an additional opportunity for business development in our country. Foreign and Ukrainian crypto companies will be able to operate legally, and Ukrainians will have convenient and secure access to the global market for virtual assets,” Mykhaylo Fedorov, Ukrainian minister of digital transformation, said in a statement.
The parliament passed the new Law of Ukraine on Virtual Assets on Thursday with more than 270 votes, according to an official statement. The bill details requirements that Bitcoin service providers such as exchanges should abide by and determines fines for violations of the law’s provisions, in addition to determining that the country’s National Securities Commission regulate the cryptocurrency market.
Ukraine’s Securities Commission will be tasked with issuing permits to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency service providers and carrying out supervision and financial monitoring of the market, the statement said.
Ukraine had introduced a similar cryptocurrency bill in September, but President Volodymyr Zelensky vetoed it in the following month arguing that the country couldn’t afford to create a new regulatory body specifically for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.
President Zelensky then returned the bill to the Ukrainian parliament along with his suggestion to let existing regulators oversee the burgeoning sector. Now, parliament has incorporated his recommendations and passed the amended bill.