Ukraine to draft guidelines for preserving Bitcoin’s value

On 17 October, the National Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) провело заседание with security agencies on the issue of managing seized cryptocurrencies.

Together with the Cyber Police, the National Security Council, the Prosecutor General’s Office, СБУ and the State Bureau of Investigation, representatives of the agency agreed to develop a dedicated methodological instruction.

The document, in particular, should regulate governance risk and preserving the value of volatile cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and others). This is of particular interest to ARMA within its remit to preserve the economic value of seized coins.

Participants also intend to coordinate actions to confiscate virtual assets frozen in EU member states under sanctions.

From the second half of 2022 to 16 October 2023, ARMA officers located and traced the cryptocurrencies of suspects in criminal cases worth an estimated 223,531 USDT. In the same period the Agency sent more than 19 requests to Bitcoin exchanges.

ARMA had already developed guidelines on identifying, tracing and seizing digital assets in 2020.

Since November 2022, the Agency and the largest cryptocurrency exchanges began exchanging information about the owners of Bitcoin wallets in criminal proceedings.

In August 2023, Ukraine recognised virtual assets as a civil-law asset.