Ukraine’s Biggest Bank Stops Bitcoin Purchases With National Currency

Ukraine’s biggest bank stopped its users from buying Bitcoin with the national currency despite the government legalizing bitcoin amidst the war with Russia as we can see more today in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The Ukrainian governemnt moved to legalize BTC amid the war with Russia but still, some of the largest local banks banned their clients from buying bitcoin using the national currency. Such an example is Ukraine’s biggest bank PrivatBank, which stopped bitcoin purhcases from being made with the national currency of Ukraine. PrivatBank is the biggest commercial bank in Ukraine and it temporarily restricted customers from purchasing BTC with the national currency.

Citing a spokesperson from PrivatBank, the report noted that the latest restrictions fall in line with the order from the National Bank of Ukraine, and the restrictions will apply during the current period of martial law in the region. The statement came shortly after Binance reported that the bank made crypto restrictions. Binance Ukraine branch announced in a post on Facebook:

“We would like to inform you that PrivatBank will not support operations with UAH on all crypto exchanges with no exception starting from March, 2022.”

Binance advised its customers to use its P2P exchange service and noted that other banks can make similar decisions at any given time. According to the official website, PrivatBank took multiple steps to keep financial stability and provide credit holidays and increase withdrawal limits. The reports on PrivatBank’s crypto-related restrictions surfaced in February with some of the users stating that the banks were blocking user accounts associated with P2P crypto exchanges such as LocalBitcoins.

What are alternatives to send money to Ukrainians using crypto? Privatbank is failing us. https://t.co/jIOmG7ZhjT

— claberus 🇺🇦 Слава Україні! (@claberus) February 26, 2022

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law to establish a legal framework for the country to operate a crypto market and the government was already working actively to adopt regulations with the parliament passing the legislation making crypto legal in the country.

As earlier reported, Amid the ongoing war with Russia, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on virtual assets that legalized crypto assets in the country. The law defines what is considered a crypto asset and tapped the National Bank of Ukraine as well as its National Commission on Securities and Stock Market as regulators, establishing other regulations around it which can offer cryptocurrencies and their registration in the country.