The Verkhovna, a Ukraine parliament has passed an amendment proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Virtual Assets.
In Brief:
- Verkhovna Rada approved President’s proposal to remove MDT from the crypto watchdog list.
- The new bill appoints two watchdogs NSSMC and NBU as crypto regulators.
The Rada passed the bill with the majority vote 272 out of 365 to legalize virtual assets during the plenary session on Thursday. Also, the majority has accepted recommendations from the President such as the substitution of the Ministry of Digital Transformation from the regulatory authority list of virtual assets.
Along with this substitution, the members have appointed The National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC) and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) as two leading regulators on the Crypto assets.
Among both watchdogs, NBU will monitor the revenue of virtual assets according to the currency’s market value. While NSSMC will supervise different types of digital assets including derivative financial instruments.
Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation stated in an interview, “Shrinking regulatory bodies can actually significantly accelerate crypto market launch. In order to ensure the growth of the crypto industry, we are ready to cooperate with The National Commission on Securities and Stock Market. Ultimately, real change in any market is driven by collaboration.”
The head advisor at the rada, Konstantin Yarmolenko expects that Zelensky could sign and make law in new amendments in the next 10 days. The local lawmakers are also planning to impose Ukraine’s tax code to regulate “all issues related to taxation of cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets.”
First Ukraine’s bill “On Virtual Assets” was introduced back in May 2020 to determine the legal status of Cryptocurrencies. After initial readings, the president returned the bill to parliament for revision to establish a new regulatory body. Last year, Ukraine passed a bill to enable crypto payments.
The recent news came amid the high tension on the Russia-Ukraine border as experts believe that Russia could possibly invade Ukraine.
