Following the progressive legislation of the Ukrainian government on cryptocurrencies, an electronic bank in the country wants to offer a Bitcoin trading desk. The proposed trading desk would feature a debit card for the purchase and sale of digital currencies. Monobank would set this offering in motion once it gains approval from the country’s National Bank.
Monobank, a Universal Bank licensed financial firm, was established in 2017. The user base of the entity has grown so much that it had hit 2.5 million customers by August 2020.
Following the Bitcoin investment of 1.5 billion USD by Tesla, the company’s co-founder Oleg Gorokhovsky had to believe in the digital asset.
The e-bank has successfully integrated itself with a crypto trading service and would rely on it to facilitate Bitcoin trades. Monobank users would be able to buy and sell Bitcoins with a special debit card. This would only be after the National Bank of Ukraine okays the application.
Is Ukraine Friendly to Cryptocurrencies?
Previously, crypto-related activities in Ukraine were not recognized by the law nor were they illegal. However, in the latter days of June, the legislature released an updated version of the draft law on “Virtual Assets”. This law would regulate the activities of cryptocurrencies and has scaled the first reading.
The revised bill would require exchanges in the country to obtain governmental permission, disclose their ownership, and of course operate on Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
Ukraine isn’t necessarily antagonistic to digital currencies. The Ukrainian draft law on Virtual Assets recognizes them as “intangible good”. It further stated that it was “an object of civil circulation”, in other words, it’d be a necessary feature for financial purposes for Ukrainian residents.
