Ukraine's central bank refuses to back crypto bill, flags monopoly risk

Ukraine's central bank won't back the country's crypto regulation bill as written. In a Nov. 4 statement, the National Bank of Ukraine said draft law No. 10225-d, now heading for a second reading in parliament, still leaves key concerns from talks with lawmakers and industry reps unresolved. The regulator flagged three problems: foreign tokens acting like electronic money, unequal rules for local and overseas assets, and the risk of monopoly in crypto trading.

The foreign token issue is the NBU's biggest worry. It says some foreign-issued assets could work like electronic money without facing equivalent oversight back home. Letting them circulate unchecked could dent Ukraine's monetary sovereignty, muddy how monetary policy travels through the economy, and put the payment system at risk, the bank warned. Its fix: the power to screen foreign tokens before they hit the Ukrainian market and pull them if needed, the same way it can handle domestic ones.

The NBU also smells regulatory arbitrage. Simplified entry procedures shouldn't let overseas issuers skip rules that Ukrainian companies have to follow, it argued, warning that gaps like that leave chunks of the market outside real state supervision. It wants one consistent set of admission requirements for everyone.

Then there's the question of who gets to run crypto trading platforms. The bank originally backed unlimited operators as long as they met the bar. In negotiations it accepted a compromise from the National Securities and Stock Market Commission capping initial authorizations at three entities picked competitively — but the latest draft reportedly drops that number and hands the count for the first five years to the securities commission's discretion. The NBU says that setup lacks safeguards against anticompetitive behavior and wants clear, transparent authorization rules.

The standoff caps years of work on a legal framework for crypto trading and taxation. The Verkhovna Rada passed the bill at first reading in September 2025, with 246 lawmakers in favor and 31 against, as crypto.news previously reported. The framework includes tax rules and requirements for virtual asset service providers; the securities regulator had floated a 23% tax on individual crypto income, made up of an 18% personal income tax and a 5% military levy. The draft would kick in on July 1, 2027, with a preferential 5% rate on qualifying crypto profits through the end of 2028.

Process is part of the fight. The NBU, which sat on the working group drafting the legislation, says the final review lacked transparency — it only received the committee-recommended text late on Nov. 3, leaving barely any time before the Nov. 4 meeting. Deputy Governor Oleksii Shaban laid out the objections there, but the bank says the format blocked a detailed airing. The parliamentary finance committee still recommended approving the bill at second reading and in full, and the securities commission backs it, arguing formal regulation would pull existing crypto activity under state supervision. The NBU wants parliament to rework the disputed provisions with input from the institutions and industry players who helped draft them.