The government of Ukraine is set to form a new working group on cryptocurrency regulation.
Ukraine National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksandr Turchynov said during a meeting on cybersecurity and infrastructure matters, that a lack of regulation around the tech would pose a threat to Ukraine’s economy and security, according to a statement released by the government on Jan. 11.
Those risks have led to the working group’s creation, which would be comprised of officials from bodies including the National Bank of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission and the National Police, among others.
The group will see which agencies would have control over the domestic crypto market and make a system for gathering income taxes traced to cryptocurrency trades.
The government statement said:
“The development of the cryptocurrencies market cannot be left out of the state’s attention.
“This was stated by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov during the meeting of the National Cybersecurity Coordination Center.
“At the meeting chaired by Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine, the results of testing of information-telecommunication systems of state authorities and critical infrastructure objects, most important for the security and defense of the state, regarding the vulnerability of cyberattacks were considered; issues of information security in the system of biometric verification and capturing of biometric data at points of entry through the state border of Ukraine, as well as other issues of cybernetic defense of the country were discussed.
“Moreover, the authorities were assigned to develop a mechanism for ensuring access of law enforcement bodies to the data of cryptocurrency exchanges with the obligation of the given subjects to store information about all transactions within the period established by law for financial institutions and disclosure of customer information on a motivated request.”
Notably, the statement says that the National Bank – Ukraine’s central bank – may act to create its own cryptocurrency.
“The National Bank of Ukraine is considering the relevance of establishing its own cryptocurrency,” it stated.
A bill forwarded to the Ukraine legislature would provide cryptocurrency exchanges under the central bank’s oversight.
The proposed legislation has provisions focused on the taxation and oversight of cryptocurrency exchanges and even has a provision regarding domestic mining operations.
However, the legislation has not yet been ratified, and there is no timeline set for its passage.
