The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said on Nov. 4 that it cannot support bill No. 10225-d, the country’s draft law on virtual assets, in its current form, and asked lawmakers to rework it before the second reading. The central bank set out its position in a Telegram post on the same day a parliamentary committee voted to send the bill back to the floor.

The Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy recommended the bill for second reading and adoption as a whole, with 20 members voting in favor. Under that text, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC) would be the crypto market’s main regulator, while the NBU would oversee electronic money tokens. The rules would apply from July 1, 2027.

The NBU said it got the final text only late on Nov. 3, and that the draft drops several compromises struck in a working group of lawmakers, the NSSMC, market players, government agencies and international partners. In Unchained’s translation of the Ukrainian post, the bank said “the process of working on the document was not sufficiently transparent.” Deputy Governor Oleksii Shaban raised the bank’s objections at the committee meeting, but the NBU said the format left no room for a full expert discussion.

Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter.

Three Risks

First, the NBU said foreign tokens that can function as e-money in practice could enter Ukraine even if no one regulates or supervises them where they were issued. It wants the authority to assess such tokens and, if needed, restrict them, as it already can for tokens issued in Ukraine.

Second, it said easier admission of foreign virtual assets should not let them sidestep rules that cover comparable Ukrainian assets, warning of regulatory arbitrage.

Third, the bank pointed to risks of monopolization and corruption when the NSSMC licenses market participants. The NBU first wanted no cap on trading-platform operators that met the requirements, then accepted an NSSMC proposal to allow three companies, picked by competition, in the first stage. But “the final version of the bill does not set a clear number of operators that may work during the first five years,” the NBU said, adding that the choice now rests with the NSSMC alone.

Why It Matters

The NBU’s objection goes to who controls entry to Ukraine’s crypto market, a question the bill has already answered two ways: a 2025 version named the central bank as the base regulator, and the committee text now gives that role to the NSSMC. With the central bank declining to back it, the bill heads toward a floor vote without the support of one of the two regulators that would enforce it.

The Rada passed the bill in first reading on Sept. 3, 2025. Its second reading was pushed to the autumn in July for lack of interagency consensus and votes, MP Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk told Interfax-Ukraine. Committee first deputy chair Yaroslav Zheleznyak said the plenary vote is planned for November.

The NBU said it still backs regulating the market along the lines of the EU’s MiCA framework and remains ready to keep working on the bill.

Related Listen: Why Banks Failed to Kill Stablecoin Rewards in the Clarity Act