## Is there a Ukraine cryptocurrency ban or not?

The National Bank of Ukraine has [implemented restrictions](https://www.kinstellar.com/locations/news-deals-insights/detail/397/1720/national-bank-of-ukraine-imposes-restrictions-on-the-purchase-of-cryptocurrencies-and-other-virtual-assets?msclkid=352c5177cf7e11ec8cedb74a0cc8134e) regarding its cryptocurrency transactions to limit the flow of money out of the country as it continues to operate under martial law.

Since the Russian invasion, $1.7 Billion was transferred out of banks in Ukraine in March and a further $900 million so far in April.

The ban is a temporary measure. It states that Ukrainians who want to buy cryptocurrencies will have to use a foreign currency other than UAH. The total monthly limit of purchases is limited to UAH 100,000 ($3,300).
The National Ukraine Bank sees crypto purchases, deposits via electronic wallets, and virtual asset purchases as quasi-cash transactions. However, regular payments made abroad and locally for goods and services do not fall under the bracket of new restrictions.

The National Bank of Ukraine believes the changes will help improve the country's fortune in the foreign exchange market. This is important for further reductions in restrictions, which will take some pressure off international reserves in Ukraine. The restrictions have raised some questions as the government of Ukraine was actively working to legalize cryptocurrencies a few days prior.

Before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, the country was trading more cryptocurrencies than fiat. Just six days before, a bill was passed legalizing cryptocurrency and putting its regulation under the governance of the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market.

Since the war started, Ukraine has used cryptocurrencies to raise capital for the war effort. The country announced on February 26 that it would accept donations in the form of crypto, with links to two crypto wallets provided for them to receive [Bitcoin](/coins/btc), Ether, and Tether. According to a leading analytics firm within the crypto space, this led to $63.8 million being raised with more than 120,000 crypto asset donations. But as the war continues to rumble on, Ukraine’s national bank believes that if large amounts of cash leave the country, it will put significant pressure on its currency. It wants to avoid what happened to the Russian ruble shortly before the war began. 

There, food prices went up considerably, prices of imported goods skyrocketed, with some foreign-made cars more than doubling in price, and there was a lack of imports. An economist from Gazprombank predicted that annual inflation will stand at 27% by the middle of 2022. However, the ruble has returned to pre-war levels in response to sanctions from the West.

NBU believes the move to limit cryptocurrency transactions is important, even though the FX market has been balancing over the past few months. It fears that large volumes of foreign currency purchased by banks seeking international settlements will negatively affect the currency. The World Bank predicts that Ukraine's GDP will fall by 45% this year.



Ukraine Cryptocurrency Ban; What's Happening?

[Bitcoin](/news/category/bitcoin-news) traders woke to yet more shock Monday morning as the price of the asset tumbled to further localised lows.

At time of press, the price of the world’s number one digital asset sat at $33,728 – a fall of 5.52% in the last 24 hours. However, with the price of Bitcoin bottoming at $33,243 at 11:09 UTC this morning the current price shows that there are buyers at this level but as you may well imagine traders and investors are treading with extreme caution. 

Bitcoin wasn’t the only crypto to experience a devastating fall in value. The entire market also dropped sharply and currently stands at $1.54 trillion representing a fall of 7.01% in the last 24 hours.

## Outside factors

With market and network fundamentals at their strongest in years many investors are looking for outside factors as the reason behind the latest market crash. Tensions between Russia and NATO led allies continue to simmer over a Russian military build up at the Ukrainian border and while Russia insists it has no plans to invade, the USA and the UK have already told their embassy staff to begin making plans to leave the country. In contrast, the EU have no plans to fly diplomats out of Ukraine and is at a loss to explain why the USA and UK have given the green light adding ‘the US has not given any clear justification for its decision’.

As we reported on Friday, cryptocurrency and digital assets are still seen by many as risk-on investments which in times of uncertainty are often the first to be sacrificed, regardless of market strength.

However, there are other angles at play in this situation which many in the crypto community believe are having an impact on market activity. The US have threatened Russia with economic sanctions which will ‘bring the country to its knees’ should the country decide to stage an invasion of Ukraine. In practical terms this means deactivating Russia from the SWIFT network which has been used by every nation state to transfer capital around the world since 1972.

## ‘Alternative rails of finance’

In retaliation to the threat from Joe Biden, Russia have spoken of using ‘alternative rails of finance’ which many people believe is a nod toward distributed and decentralised networks able to move large amounts of capital such as Ripplenet or Stellar Lumens. However, with both of these firms originating in the US it is hard to believe Russia would choose to adopt their services. That being said the nature of many cryptocurrency networks is borderless and the vision they hold for the future is one of harmonious trade with drastically reduced friction in terms of policy, regulation and cost.

The last thing the world needs right now is yet another conflict and personally speaking I don’t think that is going to happen. I do believe however that a movement away from out of date and weighted legacy payment systems such as SWIFT towards the large scale use of decentralised and distributed networks that enable a fairer and balanced global economic environment is only a matter of time. However what time frame this financial transformation occurs on is anybody's guess.


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