Ukraine weighs new bill aligning its ‘crypto’ laws with EU

Ukraine is moving closer to a new bill that would legalize digital asset ownership and establish a new taxation framework for the sector.

The bill’s first draft is set to be presented to Ukraine’s parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada, later this month, local outlets report. It’s expected to align the country’s digital asset regulations with the European Union’s standards, from transparency and consumer protection to anti-money laundering (AML) and licensing. Ukraine is seeking to become a member of the EU by the decade’s end, and the screening process is already underway, making it critical for its ‘crypto’ laws to reflect the region’s.

“The preparation of a draft law on taxation of transactions with virtual assets is currently in the final stage. It is estimated that its submission for the first reading in the Verkhovna Rada is scheduled for the end of August 2025,” Danylo Hetmantsev, who heads parliament’s tax and finance committee, told one news outlet.

The draft bill will legalize digital asset ownership in the country, but won’t recognize them as legal tender, mirroring the direction most pro-crypto frameworks have taken. El Salvador remains the only country to give ‘crypto’ legal tender status, and it has been an epic disaster for President Nayib Bukele. The Central African Republic followed suit in 2022, but the experiment was short-lived and the law was repealed the next year.

The draft bill has a provision that allows Ukrainians who acquired their digital assets before it takes effect to legally declare them, paying a one-time 5% military tax and 5% personal income tax. The government arrived at the 10% combined tax after consulting with local experts and international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), local outlets report.

“We must provide the market with legal protection. The state must recognize those who own crypto and exchanges that carry out this activity. It must give the owners the opportunity to protect their rights because you cannot help but notice it’s too big to ignore,” Hetmantsev commented.

Ukraine’s central bank supports new law

The Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, Andriy Pyshnyy, has supported the new draft bill, but insists that ‘crypto‘ must not be assigned legal tender status.

“Virtual assets cannot be a means of payment, and cannot in any way undermine the effectiveness of our monetary instruments. There should be no transfer of monetary powers and no undermining of the National Bank’s capabilities due to the legalization of virtual assets,” he stated in a recent interview.

He believes the new framework will take the market out of the shadows, allowing the central bank to better monitor and oversee the financial transactions involving the sector. But while Pyshnyy is eager to oversee the sector, lawmakers remain undecided on which government agency should be given jurisdiction over ‘crypto.’

In June, Hetmantsev, the head of the parliamentary committee on finance and taxation, said legislators are deciding between NBU, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and the National Securities and Stock Market Commission.

However, the NBU is currently the most likely to be handed authority over the sector as it’s “an institutionally capable regulator with experience in the banking and non-banking sectors,” Hetmantsev said.

Ukraine’s ‘crypto’ regulation will have a global impact given the government’s massive stash. The Eastern European nation holds 46,351 BTC, worth over $5.6 billion, which ranks only behind the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. Ukraine also recently proposed a BTC reserve, joining others like the U.S., the Czech Republic, Brazil, Poland, and more.

Watch: Breaking down solutions to blockchain regulation hurdles