New bill in Ukraine to allow payments in cryptocurrency, says official

A new cryptocurrency-related bill in Ukraine will allow payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) despite not recognizing crypto as legal tender, a government official claimed.

Oleksandr Bornyakov, deputy minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, is confident that it would be “quite legal to pay with cryptocurrencies” in Ukraine through payment intermediaries enabling crypto-to-fiat conversions.

The official said in a Friday interview with local financial publication Minfin that Ukraine’s draft bill on virtual assets “clearly states” that cryptocurrencies do not constitute legal tender in the country, only allowing crypto purchases.

However, the bill stipulates that local payment processors would still be able to provide services for converting crypto to fiat to enable payments deriving from crypto, stating:

“Today, the legislation in Ukraine also does not allow you to pay in dollars, but you can easily pay for purchases with a dollar card. Currencies are converted instantly during payment. […] Therefore, it will be quite legal to pay with cryptocurrencies in Ukraine, but through an intermediary.”

Bornyakov also noted that the upcoming bill will officially legitimize the process of cryptocurrency trading and reporting. “We expect that there will be a whole market of intermediary services for payment of goods by cryptocurrencies, their storage, and exchange. This will expand the possibilities of their use,” he added.

Related: New study reveals high demand for payments in cryptocurrency

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Ministry of Digital Transformation recommended the adoption of an updated draft bill “On Virtual Assets” in the second reading in late June. Local e-bank Monobank subsequently disclosed plans to launch a debit card featuring Bitcoin trading.

The news comes shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed another digital currency-related law, referred to as the law On Payment Services. The law officially enabled Ukraine’s central bank to issue a central bank digital currency, the digital hryvnia.