The Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine (BES) will review bitcoin exchanges whose owners and founders are residents of Ukraine. Forbes quoted the agency’s new head, Andriy Paschuk.
Back in August, BES calculated that over ten years the Ukrainian budget lost at least 3 billion hryvnias (about $81 million) in taxes from the activities of local cryptocurrency exchanges.
As Paschuk explained, the calculations were based on data from analytical and search systems, as well as information obtained through various methods of OSINT reconnaissance.
“Analysts traced the total turnover of crypto assets across the root wallets of the examined exchanges and compared it with the declared income of the owners and founders who are residents of Ukraine,” the agency’s head said.
On this basis BES established the total amount of risky operations and the volume of potential losses to the state budget.
As a result, the agency is conducting a pre-trial investigation into entities that are participants in the cryptocurrency market.
Kuna founder and CEO Mikhail Chobanian, in a ForkLog interview, confirmed that investigative actions have been ongoing since the start of 2023.
“We have not seen aggressive actions yet. Let them check everyone; it is in BES’s charter. I see no reason for concern,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chobanian added that the National Bank of Ukraine “killed the white crypto market” as early as March. Then cryptocurrency exchanges reported a temporary suspension of operations via hryvnia bank cards. The regulator’s decision was linked to countering money laundering and tax evasion in the gambling sector.
Earlier, NBU asked Ukrainian banks for financial statements on dealings with a number of cryptocurrency companies and non-bank payment services.
The law ‘On Virtual Assets’, adopted in September 2021, will not enter into force until changes are made to the Ukrainian Tax Code.
Due to the lack of regulatory framework, cryptocurrency exchanges do not yet pay taxes in Ukraine. In early June, НКЦБФР presented a draft bill. It proposed a rate of 18%.