Ukraine plans to legalize cryptocurrency and mining over the next 2-3 years

The Ukrainian government expects to legalize the circulation of cryptocurrencies and mining within two to three years.

This is stated in the message of the press service of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, published following a meeting of the heads of the department with representatives of the Ukrainian blockchain community, which was held on October 7.

Recall that on September 27 at the presentation of the State in a Smartphone brand, ministry leaders first announced plans to legalize cryptocurrencies. The head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Mikhail Fedorov, stressed that cryptocurrencies are now not prohibited in Ukraine, but they do not have an official status either.

“People who are involved in this (cryptocurrency) should leave the gray zone and start paying taxes,” the head of the Ministry of Finance stated.

October 7 During an open meeting of the Blockchain Community and State of Ukraine, the representative of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, Alexander Bornyakov, said:

“The plans of the ministry – after determining the status, make sure that mining is launched legally. That is, those who are engaged in mining, could do this without fear that they are in some kind of "gray zone".

In general, the state plans for the next two to three years :

• legislatively define terminology; work out a compromise version of taxation in the cryptocurrency sphere;
• by the summer of 2020, implement the recommendations of the International Anti-Money Laundering Group (FATF);
• introduce blockchain technology into state registries;
• legalize mining and attract international cryptocurrency exchanges to the country.

Participants of the meeting noted that while there is mutual understanding between the deputies who oversee the issue of legalization in parliament, the Ministry of Finance and the market, and work to create a legislative and regulatory framework is carried out jointly.

In addition, in the near future, the Ministry of Digital Affairs is planning to sign a memorandum with the inter-faction parliamentary association of the Verkhovna Rada Blockchain4Ukraine , which includes more than 50 deputies, the Blockchain Association of Ukraine (BAU), the Office of Effective Regulation (BRDO) and other structures

For his part, acting Director of the Strategy and Reform Department of the National Bank of Ukraine Mikhail Vidyakin, commenting on the process of legalizing cryptocurrencies, noted:

“In Ukraine, a concept that is understandable for all participants should be developed – definitions, information exchange, who regulates how, issuing licenses, limits, etc. It will be great if the Ministry of Finance takes over it … A regulator of market behavior in this area should be defined, so how without it the rights of consumers and investors could be infringed. ”

Vidyakin called for the prompt adoption of the necessary legislation and the development of a strategy to determine the place of crypto assets in the development of the financial market of Ukraine.

“Now we are developing the“ Strategy for the Development of the Financial Sector 2025 ”, in which regulators accept offers from the market. Documents and the form for submitting proposals in electronic form – on the NBU website in the section "Reform of the financial sector" , – said Vidyakin.

The concept of regulation of operations with cryptocurrencies determines the National Commission for Securities and Stock Market of Ukraine as the main regulator in the cryptocurrency market and assigns to it, in particular, licensing of cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto exchangers . At the same time, the State Financial Monitoring Committee is assigned control over cryptocurrency exchanges, and the Ministry of Finance and the State Fiscal Service are assigned control over the payment of taxes on income from operations with cryptocurrencies.

The legalization of cryptocurrencies in Ukraine was first discussed in 2018 during the time of the government of Volodymyr Groysman. In particular, then they planned to develop taxation rules for cryptocurrency transactions. The government also instructed to introduce cryptocurrency mining into the classifier of types of economic activity (CEDA), which legitimizes this activity.

Publication date 10/08/2019
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