Mykhailo Chobanyan, the founder of the Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna, has decided to cease the company’s operations in all countries. He announced this on his Telegram channel.
“I have decided to cease all commercial activities,” the businessman stated.
Users will be able to withdraw their balances during a two-month transition period.
“The code, cleansed of client data, will continue to exist in several projects, but that will be a different story with different players,” Chobanyan added.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service blocked the exchange’s domain based on a decision by the Shevchenkivskyi Court of Kyiv at the request of the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB).
According to Chobanyan, the issue revolves around accusations of tax evasion.
“What taxes, from what — I don’t know yet, but we will definitely find out. I’m curious about the formula and the specific activities used to calculate the shortfall,” the exchange founder stated.
Following the closure of Kuna, Chobanyan intends to focus on symbiocracy — a model of world order based on the symbiosis of humans, AI, and the noosphere.
At the time of writing, the daily trading volume on the exchange is just over $4 million, according to CoinGecko.
The bill on the regulation and taxation of virtual assets in Ukraine has not yet been passed. Its updated version is being prepared for consideration in the first quarter of 2025.
Since the beginning of 2023, the BEB has been conducting a pre-trial investigation into bitcoin exchanges whose owners and founders are Ukrainian residents. The investigation was prompted by discrepancies between the turnover of crypto assets in the wallets of trading platforms and the declared income of their founders.
Earlier, Mykhailo Chobanyan had announced plans to sell the business in Ukraine.