Ukraine Edges Further Toward Crypto Legalization

Ukraine may be on the verge of officially recognizing cryptocurrencies as financial “instruments” – putting tokens on the same financial footing as stocks and bonds.

Per media outlet Segodnye, the head of the National Commission for Securities and Stock Market (NSCOFF) Timur Khromaev, the chairman of Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission, and the head of the Committee on Development Strategy and Economic Analysis of Stock Markets, said, “[Cryptocurrencies] are more like financial instruments such as shares or bonds, rather than a means of payment. They are a means of accumulating [funds]. We plan to legally recognize cryptocurrencies as such – and allow [Ukrainian] people to invest and use them.”

Khromaev stated that all of Ukraine’s financial regulators have recently debated cryptocurrencies, and are on the verge of coming to a consensus. Khromaev has also been pushing for international counterparts to follow suit this year with pro-cryptocurrency and initial coin offering (ICO) measures.

The securities commission is also thought to be putting together a draft bill on tax and regulatory measures – together with leading Ukrainian cryptocurrency and blockchain technology firms. The commission hopes to present this bill to the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, by the end of this year or early in 2019.

Earlier this summer, the deputy head of the National Bank of Ukraine, Oleg Chury, was quoted by Ukrainian media outlet Financial Club as saying the country was on the verge of granting legal status to cryptocurrencies in Ukraine, and spoke of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market’s possible regulatory role.

Chury put forward a model not unlike that currently used in Japan, whereby a financial regulator issues operating licenses to the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges, and polices their operations to ensure compliance.