Ukraine is looking to regulate crypto at a time when regions like the U.S. and the U.K. are enveloping the sector in comprehensive guidelines. The Ukrainian parliament is reportedly set to begin the first reading of its draft crypto rules towards the end of August.
Amid ongoing geopolitical tensions with Russia, Ukraine is prioritising the taxation of crypto incomes as a means of generating additional revenue for its national treasury.
Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on finance, tax and customs policy, has claimed that the draft rules on crypto taxation is in the final stage, CoinTelegraph reported on Friday, August 8.
The discussions around taxing crypto transactions had started picking pace in Ukraine around April this year. At the time, government officials were reportedly mulling if only certain crypto transactions were taxed by up to 23 percent. They were assessing if crypto-to-crypto transactions and those between stablecoins could get some sort of an exemption.
The country plans to follow European Union’s MiCA rules to finalize its regulatory approach towards digital assets. On the other hand, it has decided to tail behind the U.S. and create a national BTC reserve. A bill regarding this, for now, is awaiting an approval from the regulators there.
Data by BitcoinTreasuries.net shows that Ukraine holds 46,351 BTC tokens in its treasury — making its government the fourth largest holder of the asset. The U.S is at the top of the list with 198,022 BTC in possession. China and U.S. are at the second and third spots respectively on this index.