Another central bank has come out against Bitcoin (BTC). This time, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) issued a statement that informed its citizens about the usual risks of bitcoin: volatility, not guaranteed by a governmental body and potential theft involved with owning the digital currency.
Essentially, the primary purpose of the statement was to confirm that the NBU would not be held responsible for any citizen that loses any of his or her virtual currency holdings.
However, a lot of businesses have become interested in one element of the statement. The NBU noted that businesses working as bitcoin payments systems should register with the central bank. If businesses do not register then they might be breaking the law – businesses should not try to comply with the law by registering with any other organization besides the NBU.
Here is the statement
“In accordance with Article 9 of payment organizations payment systems, payment systems participants and payment infrastructure service operators have the right to perform activities in Ukraine only after being registered by the National Bank of Ukraine.”
The law is similar to what has been in place in the United States. Money transmitters are required to register with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) to be in compliance with the regulation.
Whether this is a drawback or a positive remains to be seen, but considering that Ukraine hasn’t taken the extreme measures as Russia – prohibition of the cryptocurrency – it might be a step in the right direction. Since the 2010 election, the relations between Russia and Ukraine have vastly improved and both nations’ peoples uphold an upbeat attitude with both governments.
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