Ukraine is moving swiftly to legalize cryptocurrency payments in the country. New legislation adopted by lawmakers in the Eastern European nation allows citizens to hold and transact in the cryptocurrency. The move comes as part of a broader consensus to help the cryptocurrency industry to grow in the country under the watchful eye of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s Anti Money Laundering unit.
Ukrainian lawmakers of Verkhovna Rada, the parliament adopted this bill to include the complex AML practices that are being proposed by the FATF. The new crypto regulatory framework will give the regulators more control over the transactions’ origins and destinations, something that the AML framework requires.
As part of the new regulatory definition of cryptocurrencies, they are classified as property by the government. This means that the currency holders can use their money as a medium of exchange that will lead to crypto-based payments, physical property transactions and thus help in building a durable crypto infrastructure in the country.
The law also allows citizens in a private capacity to become third party crypto transmitters and receivers. However, these services if offered will have to strictly comply with the financial monitoring and reporting standards being promoted by the bill. This will allow cryptocurrency exchanges, payment providers to have some legal cover before eventually organizational rules are defined in the law.
The news was also coupled with a recent Ukraine ministry of Digital Transformation partnership with a Belarusian exchange. The move will allow the ministry to learn more about the cryptocurrency sector and thus help adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain in general in a better way.
The move was expected from Ukraine as it was one of the few countries that were on the radar of the FATF regarding regulation for cryptocurrencies. The bill’s progressive nature was made possible because of the involvement of EU-funded experts who have over €500 million from the EU for this purpose of helping nations make crypto-specific laws and other research.
Ukrain’e prime minister Volodymyr Zelensky is a fan of blockchain technology and is now translating the apparent liking into actual baby steps towards a real crypto progressive nation which is hard to come by these days as governments around the world are mostly involved in clamping down against the cryptocurrency.
Source: ukr
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