Parliament to consider bill on legalization of cryptocurrencies at opening of next session - Hetmantsev
The Verkhovna Rada was unable to consider bill No. 10225-d on regulating the turnover of virtual assets (VA) during the 13th session, so it may postpone its consideration at the opening of the next session, which will be held on September 2, said the head of the parliamentary committee on finance, taxation and customs policy Danylo Hetmantsev.
"Unfortunately, for some colleagues in the parliamentary hall, politics turned out to be more important than economics. I am convinced that at the opening of the next 14th session of the Verkhovna Rada - and this will happen on September 2 - we will consider this project. I will insist on this," the head of the committee wrote on Telegram on Friday.
He added that the legalization of cryptocurrency could potentially bring billions to the state budget.
Earlier, Hetmantsev reported that the draft law was developed on the basis of the European MiCA regulation and proposes to define a virtual asset as a specific digital object (property) that exists in electronic form thanks to distributed ledger technology (blockchain). It is emphasized that virtual assets are not monetary funds and cannot be used as an official means of payment in Ukraine. By their legal nature, they are close to movable property within the framework of civil law.
The VAs themselves will be classified into three categories: tokens tied to assets - their value is supported by being tied to material or financial assets, such as currency or property; electronic money tokens - tied to a certain official currency; other VAs - this group includes all assets that do not fall into the first two categories.
The bill also provides for a VA taxation mechanism, an authorization procedure for owners, and a mechanism for protecting their rights.
Referring to Global Ledger's research on the potential for taxation, Hetmantsev noted that if this market were legalized earlier, in 2021-2024, Ukraine could receive about UAH 8.34 billion in taxes from registered crypto exchanges (at a rate of 18%) and up to UAH 6.53 billion from personal income taxation.