The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has asked Ukrainian banks for financial reports on their dealings with a number of cryptocurrency firms and non-bank payment services. Regulator representatives, in a comment to ForkLog, neither confirmed nor denied the email circulation.
According to a screenshot of the letter, reviewed by Strana.UA, the NBU requested from organisations data on e-commerce transaction volumes, information on receipt and transfer of funds, and all statements for all accounts since the beginning of 2023. Banks were given seven business days to provide the reports.
In particular, the regulator asked about banking operations related to cryptocurrency exchanges Kuna and Qmall, as well as payment services CoinPay and GEO Pay. Banks were requested to provide risk-scoring reports on interactions with these platforms, the ID and name of the acquirer, and the owners’ questionnaires for the listed crypto companies.
The founder and CEO of Kuna, Mikhail Chobanian, in a comment to ForkLog, confirmed the authenticity of the circulated media screenshots. He noted that his company never stored the information requested by the regulator in Ukraine.
In his Telegram channel, Chobanian broadly criticized the situation developing in the country’s cryptocurrency market.
“The market has slipped into an uncontrollable dark underbelly. There will be more raids and seizures at exchanges. But this is good for Ukraine in the long run. The system must devour itself, which is what it is busy doing,” — резюмировал он.
Representatives GEO Pay in ForkLog’s comment said that they did not receive any letters in connection with the NBU’s mailing. They noted that since their service is not a bank or financial institution, it “falls outside the direct jurisdiction of the NBU.”
“GEO Pay strictly adheres to all Ukrainian legislation and is continually striving to align its activities with the law and to protect user data,” — добавили в компании.
Along with this, the crypto platform CoinPay mentioned in the letter announced the full closure of the project.
From August 7, the company will stop accepting deposits, and from August 17 it will begin to disable interfaces. Until that date, users will be able to withdraw funds.
Representatives said that it has effectively not operated since 2023 and there are no active users on the platform.
Representatives of Qmall did not respond to ForkLog’s request.
The NBU, ForkLog’s editorial team, did not confirm or deny the mailing. The regulator’s representatives reminded that they monitor banks and non-bank financial institutions for compliance with the current laws and internal regulatory acts.
“To carry out these functions, the National Bank has the right to demand from market participants any information and data, and financial institutions are obliged to provide it,” the NBU noted.
Regulators declined to provide a detailed list of such information, citing bank secrecy.
Earlier, the Bureau of Economic Security calculated that over ten years the Ukrainian budget lost at least 3 billion hryvnias in taxes from the activity of local cryptocurrency exchanges.
As noted, the law adopted in September 2021 “On Virtual Assets” will not come into force until changes to Ukraine’s Tax Code are enacted.
In early June 2023, Ukraine’s National Commission for Securities and Stock Market presented a bill regulating the taxation of crypto-asset operations in the country, and an updated text of the law “On Virtual Assets” with the provisions implementing the European regulation MiCA.