Ukraine Central Bank Refuses to Back Crypto Bill Cleared for Second Reading

Ukraine’s central bank will not support a crypto market bill that a parliamentary committee cleared for a final vote, warning that the draft leaves foreign tokens that act like electronic money outside its control and risks monetary sovereignty.

The National Bank of Ukraine said in a Nov. 4 statement that Draft Law No. 10225-d on the circulation of virtual assets, recommended by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy for adoption in the second reading and as a whole, fails to reflect compromises struck during drafting.

The NBU said it received the final text only late the evening before the committee vote and that the process “was not sufficiently transparent.” Deputy Governor Oleksii Shaban raised the bank’s objections at the committee meeting, but the NBU said the format did not allow a full debate.

Ukraine already legalized a framework for virtual assets in 2022. The new bill is meant to put that market under detailed rules modeled on the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA, and on International Monetary Fund recommendations. The NBU says it supports that direction in principle.

Three risks the NBU flags

The bank’s public case rests on three points.

First, the draft would let foreign tokens into Ukraine even when they function as electronic money but face no matching supervision in the countries where they are issued. That, the NBU said, threatens monetary sovereignty, the transmission of monetary policy, payment infrastructure and financial stability.

The bank wants the same power it has over domestically issued tokens: the authority to assess those foreign assets and, when needed, restrict their circulation in Ukraine.

Second, simplified admission of foreign virtual assets must not let them sidestep rules that apply to comparable Ukrainian assets. Without that parity, the NBU warned, segments of the market could expand outside adequate oversight and create regulatory arbitrage.

Third, the bank flagged monopolization and corruption risks in how the National Securities and Stock Market Commission would authorize trading-platform operators. The NBU initially opposed numerical caps, then agreed as a compromise to limit the first wave to three legal persons chosen by competitive selection.

The final draft, it said, drops a clear five-year cap and leaves the number of operators to the securities commission’s discretion without enough antitrust safeguards.

What the bill would do next

The committee’s Nov. 4 recommendation does not enact the law. A final Verkhovna Rada vote is expected later in November. If adopted, the rules would take effect on July 1, 2027, Interfax Ukraine reported, splitting supervision between the NBU and the securities commission.

Under the committee version, personal income from virtual-asset trades would face Ukraine’s standard personal income tax, with a reduced 5% rate through the end of 2028 for assets acquired before the law takes effect. Crypto-to-crypto exchanges would not be taxed, and virtual-asset deals would sit outside VAT.

The fight lands as Ukraine continues to debate how deep bitcoin and other digital assets should sit in state finance. Lawmakers last year introduced a separate bill that would let the NBU hold virtual assets, including bitcoin, in its foreign-exchange and gold reserves, a permission the bank would not be required to use.

“The development of the virtual asset market and the protection of monetary and financial stability are not mutually exclusive,” the NBU said. It called on members of parliament to refine the document with all parties to the process and said it remains ready to cooperate.

The test now is whether Ukraine’s lawmakers reopen the foreign-token and licensing clauses before a floor vote, or push the committee text through and leave the central bank on the outside of a framework it helped draft.