After the Russian attack on Ukraine, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies became popular in Ukraine, while the volumes of local crypto exchanges increased.
However, the Ukrainian government made a policy change regarding cryptocurrencies, which caused the trading volumes on exchanges to shrink.
Accordingly, the Ukrainian government has recently requested local cryptocurrency platforms to provide certain financial information.
Michael Chobanyan, founder and CEO of local crypto exchange Kuna, shared on Telegram the financial statements of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) for the first two quarters of 2023 from four local crypto exchanges Kuna, CoinPay, GEO Pay and Qmall. He said he asked her to present it.
The financial information requested by the NBU included the release of disclosures for crypto platforms volumes, transfer data and all accounts opened from the beginning of 2023.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Michael Chobanyan continued his words by stating that users left the market in Ukraine as of March 2023 due to these harsh policies of the NBU:
“Due to the policies of the Ukrainian government, Kuna's trading volumes have shrunk by 90% since March 2023.
They are very consistent in killing off my country's potential in the crypto and Web3 space.
While the Ukrainian authorities are too hostile to the crypto industry, the NBU's latest action has some benefits as well.
Because now we are focusing on Europe and especially the b2b market. At this point, these actions of NBU encourage us to become a successful European company instead of a Ukrainian player, and I am grateful to NBU for this.”
*Not investment advice.
