Ukraine intends to adjust anti-money laundering legislation to avoid regulatory accusations. This is to enable the Binance cryptocurrency exchange to establish an office in the country. Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Alexander Bornyakov said this during an interview with local Ukrainian media.
“We filed AML amendments to Law No. 2179 “On combating money laundering” and added virtual assets there in order to comply with other jurisdictions,” the official says.
According to Alexander Bornyakov, Ukraine received similar requests to launch Bittrex and Coinbase offices in the country.
Work is also ongoing on a bill that introduces the terminology of the cryptocurrency market and taxation of profits from operations with digital assets into the legislative field.
“You can familiarize yourself with the draft of the law, but its amendments have been closed so far. When the first reading takes place, everyone will be able to come to give their recommendations,” Bornyakov says.
The deputy minister also notes that “mining” was excluded from the terminology of the bill, it will be included in the classifier of types of economic activity:
“In fact, I do not expect much from mining. Because mining, the problem today is not in regulation, but in the cost of electricity, ”he says.
Among the priorities of the Ministry of Digital Transformation Of Ukraine, according to Bornyakov, is that it would be introducing “State in a Smartphone” programme.
“The main task is to transfer 100% of the services available to citizens of the country to online mode. An ambitious goal is making 20% of these services fully automatic to exclude the possibility of the influence of the human factor,” the official says.
Among the priorities are covering all regions with a high-quality Internet, training specialists in the digital technologies sector, and the development of the IT-sphere.
Recall, a draft law that will regulate the taxation of transactions with cryptocurrency assets in Ukraine was submitted to the Ukrainian Parliament last week.
Binance is Set to Operate Legally in Ukraine
In turn, Binance has already begun to “actively work” on opening its office in Ukraine and, presumably, would manage to do this before the new year.
Regulators expect that partnership with such a major player will help Ukraine “put in an appearance at the world cryptocurrency map”.
The launch of the Binance crypto exchange in Ukraine will “fill the state budget” and will become a strong driver for the legalization of cryptocurrencies. Note that the Ukrainian Hryvnia has already been added to the Binance Exchange.