For people living in Ukraine, like myself, this news couldn't be more exciting. With virtual assets now getting passed by the Verkhovna Rada (aka Parliament) the huge amount of cryptocurrency holders in Ukraine can now continue building towards a crypto-fuelled economy with much more security. The votes were a landslide with 0 votes against the bill. You can see the results and details of the bill on the public documents presented by the Rada here:
This comes almost a year after the official announcement of the E-Hryvnia (ticker UAX), a digital substitute to the fiat Ukrainian Hryvnia being developed by Stellar. There hasn't been much noise about UAX for a long time now except for a few teaser-level information being published here and there. You can find more information in this chart made by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The interesting thing is that this sudden passing of the bill comes after the President took away the overseeing power from the former holder and it seems like the bill has been expedited. It is possible that the looming invasion has something to do with it.
Ukraine is already in top-5 countries on cryptocurrency usage. Today we made one more step forward: Parliament adopted law on virtual assets! This will legalize crypto exchangers and cryptocurrencies, and Ukrainians could protect their assets from possible abuse or fraud.
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) February 17, 2022
The demand for legalizing crypto in Ukraine has always been there. It has been one of the most likely countries to adopt crypto and the works have been there. There are multiple crypto atms scattered around every city, there are properties for sale that can be purchased with crypto, there are jobs paying in crypto, there are physical exchanges in the cities, and almost every young person has some crypto lying around.
Don't take my word for it, Mykhailo Federov, the first vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation of Ukraine has openly tweeted about how abundant and big is the crypto community in the country. And within the small character limit of Twitter, he has nailed how this bill will help develop and empower the community.
This bill does open a lot of possibilities. Since UAH's flailing strength, crypto has become a popular option for many. With this bill in action, fully licensed crypto related businesses can be built, it opens doors for foreign investments, more businesses will happily accept crypto in exchange for services, legal consultations can be formed and referred to, there is a strong possibility for banks to lend or borrow, cracking down on black money is much easier, and chances of scams and frauds going unprosecuted are slimmer.
However, it can also go hand in hand with a new bill being discussed where "secondary income" can be taxed. A whopping 3%-20% can be taxed from a side hustle or income. If this tax is applied to crypto earnings but in turn applies all the benefits and security traditional income and businesses have, then I am all for it. It is a massive win and I am very excited for what is to come!
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