Ukraine Asks Local Crypto Companies to Provide Financial Statements
Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange named Kuna has experienced a 90% shrink in trading volume since 2023. The CEO of the firm has told the media that these pessimistic developments are a direct result of government policies. On the other hand, the government of Ukraine has continued to increase regulatory scrutiny.
Recently, the government has asked crypto enterprises to submit their financial reports. The orders are issued by the National Bank of Ukraine or NBU which has directed the top 4 cryptocurrency enterprises.
NBU orders mandates, crypto enterprises to share their financial statements for the two quarters of the ongoing year. These cryptocurrency exchanges include names like Kuna, Qmall, CoinPay, and GEO Pay.
As per the regulatory guidelines issued by the Central Bank of the region, nominated crypto exchanges have a week to comply. Michael Chobanyan is the CEO and founder of Kuna Exchange. He responded on the matter from a document distributed on Telegram.
The Telegram account belongs to the Ukrainian media outlet. This document is a circular from the NBU asking for crypto entities to submit their operating volume.
NBU Asks Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Share User Data
In addition to the trading volume and financials of the nominated cryptocurrency exchanges, NBU is also interested in account holder information. The circular shared by Chobbanyan calls for complete details about the receipt and transfer of cryptocurrencies.
As per the contents of the notification, NBU h has directed crypto exchanges to submit account holder statements since the start of the current year. The CEO has confirmed the news on his personal Telegram account.
He maintained that the main reason for these actions is not yet publicized. He has claimed that at present there is no such information available on such matters. Before the creation of the Kuna exchange that the so-called government direction is very clear.
He also claimed that in the last two weeks, regulators started to investigate exchanges operational in Kyiv. These searches were sanctioned by NBU, the Security Services of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He maintained that the government is likely to continue to dig into more crypto exchanges.
It is important to note that Kuna Exchange exited as a B2C company in Ukraine on account of troubles with NBU. Chobanyan has claimed that the Central Bank has played an important role in killing the development potential of Web3 and cryptocurrencies.
It is not a big surprise that the trading volume of the Kuna exchange has shrunk by 90% during the last few months. The crypto exchange firm lost 60% of its trading volume when it left Russia in 2022.
Regardless of the hostile stance of the Ukrainian government, Chobanyan has found a silver lining in the situation. He maintained that he has directed his focus on European nations and B2B markets. To this end, the firm has also launched KunaPay.
He added that he is grateful to NBU that directing it to become a successful European enterprise rather than remaining a local entity within Ukraine alone. On the other hand, NBU officials have informed media outlets that they intend to issue their response to the story. However, thus far the Central Bank has refrained from issuing any official quotes or replies to the statements.
