In particular, the NBU sent this requirement to Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna, as well as crypto services CoinPay, GEO Pay and Qmall. The Central Bank asked them for data on the volume of cryptoasset transactions, along with information on deposits and fund transfers. Ukrainian industry companies are required to provide statements for all accounts from the beginning of 2023.
Kuna founder and CEO Mikhail Chobanyan confirmed this in his Telegram channel. Moreover, the NBU did not specify for what purpose it collects this information. It is also unknown whether any further bans will follow, and whether restrictions will be imposed on payments or transactions involving cryptocurrencies.
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“I can simplify the work of the NBU staff – there is no such information in Ukraine and never has been. I learned this from a search in 2015, almost a year before the launch of Kuna. In general, the actions of the authorities are understandable. Over the past two weeks, the first wave of searches in exchange offices took place in Kiev and across Ukraine, and the market went into uncontrolled “blackness”. More searches and seizures will follow,” Chobanyan wrote.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Chobanyan said that the Kuna exchange left the Ukrainian market back in March 2023, due to “predatory actions” by the NBU. According to Chobanyan, the authorities are consistently killing Ukraine’s potential in the cryptocurrency space and Web3 sector. In February 2022, the platform left the Russian market as well, restricting access to trading to local traders.
Chobanyan said that due to the Ukrainian authorities’ harsh actions towards crypto-business, Kuna has become more focused on Europe, especially the B2B sector. Kuna recently launched a crypto-acquiring service called KunaPay, so Ukrainian authorities might have had concerns about launching the service in the country, Chobanyan suggested.
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“In any case, I am grateful to the NBU for motivating us to become a successful European company rather than a niche Ukrainian player,” Chobanyan added.
Recall that last year the Central Bank of Ukraine banned local citizens from using hryvnias to buy cryptocurrencies. Later, in March 2023, the largest crypto exchange Binance announced the suspension of bank card transactions in Ukrainian hryvnias.