{"id":75015,"date":"2023-03-03T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=75015"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T00:03:28","slug":"kuna-founder-cites-reasons-for-halting-hryvnia-operations-on-bitcoin-exchanges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/kuna-founder-cites-reasons-for-halting-hryvnia-operations-on-bitcoin-exchanges\/","title":{"rendered":"Kuna founder cites reasons for halting hryvnia operations on Bitcoin exchanges"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inability to cashless hryvnia operations<\/a> on exchanges is potentially linked to anti-money-laundering and tax-evasion efforts in the gambling sector. ForkLog reported this in a comment by Mikhail Chobanian, founder of the Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna.<\/p>\n

According to him, the problem of depositing and withdrawing hryvnia on trading platforms began around September 2022, and by the end of December the restrictions had tightened.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00abNBU<\/span> banned P2P- and A2C<\/span>-operations by financial companies, and because all crypto exchanges operate through them, the latter lost access as a result\u00bb, said Chobanian.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He did not specify concrete reasons for such restrictions, but cited a post by MP Alexey Zhmerenetsky about the annual laundering of 54 \u043c\u043b\u0440\u0434 \u0433\u0440\u0438\u0432\u0435\u043d<\/a> through a shadow gambling industry. Part of this amount, according to the deputy, is withdrawn through digital assets.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00abCrypto has nothing to do with this at all; it is only tangentially involved. But when the entire market was shut down, crypto also shut down because it used the same mechanisms\u00bb, added Mikhail Chobanian.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He also called the outcome of this crackdown a new NBU regulation<\/a> concerning the re-licensing of financial service providers in the country.<\/p>\n

According to Kuna’s founder, the P2P market in Ukraine will remain in a pared-down form, but he does not yet see grounds for a complete ban on person-to-person exchange operations between private individuals.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00abWe will have to deal with P2P, or completely resort to cash. I forecast that a variety of alternative channels outside Ukraine will begin to emerge, converting to the currency at the NBU rate,\u00bb he forecast.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Overall, Chobanian believes the new NBU restriction will inflict significant reputational damage on Ukraine, which in 2020 held a leading position<\/a> in the global cryptocurrency adoption index by Chainalysis. It will also affect the activity of local small and medium-sized businesses and crypto donations.<\/p>\n

He added that in light of the new restrictions the Kuna-founded exchange intends to pivot toward European users.<\/p>\n

As ForkLog went to press, the National Bank of Ukraine had not provided a comment.<\/p>\n

As previously reported, since 16 March 2022 PrivatBank has temporarily prohibited its clients from \u0437\u0430\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0438\u0442\u044c \u0433\u0440\u0438\u0432\u043d\u044b \u043d\u0430 \u043a\u0440\u0438\u043f\u0442\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043b\u044e\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u0431\u0438\u0440\u0436\u0438<\/a>. The restriction is tied to the NBU’s decision and applies during martial law.<\/p>\n

Monobank told ForkLog UA at the time that cross-border transfers were restricted, but within Ukraine, hryvnia operations should not pose any difficulties.<\/p>\n

At the end of April, the NBU, aiming to reduce capital outflows from the country, restricted cryptocurrency purchase operations<\/a> to up to 100,000 hryvnias per person per month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The inability to conduct cashless hryvnia operations on exchanges is potentially linked to anti-money laundering and tax-evasion efforts in the gambling sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1166,32,1563,590,1138,686,16],"class_list":["post-75015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-centralized-exchanges-cex","tag-gambling","tag-mikhail-chobanyan","tag-nbu","tag-opinions","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"21","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75017,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75015\/revisions\/75017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}