{"id":1184424,"date":"2026-09-16T15:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T12:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/?p=1184424"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T09:27:23","slug":"ua-holova-nktspfr-pytannia-ne-v-tomu-chy-rehuliuvaty-virtualni-aktyvy-a-iak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/ua-holova-nktspfr-pytannia-ne-v-tomu-chy-rehuliuvaty-virtualni-aktyvy-a-iak\/","title":{"rendered":"Chairman of the NSSMC: The question is not whether to regulate virtual assets, but how"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a column for Ekonomichna Pravda, Oleksii Semeniuk expressed the Commission\u2019s position on the draft Law of Ukraine No. 10225-d ahead of its second reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oleksii Semeniuk, Chairman of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), considers the debate over the advisability of regulating the virtual assets market in Ukraine to be closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t decide whether the virtual asset market will exist \u2014 it already does. We decide what its place will be in the financial system,\u201d<\/em> he wrote in a column for Ekonomichna Pravda.<\/p>\n

The reason for this was the preparation for the second reading of the draft law No. 10225-d, which the Verkhovna Rada adopted in principle a year ago. The NSSMC, headed by Semeniuk, submitted 80 comments and proposals to the Rada and proposes to allocate powers among regulators at the level of this law \u2014 following a model consistent with the European MiCA regulation.<\/p>\n

The virtual asset market in Ukraine is already operational, without government authorization. According to international estimates, 6.5 million Ukrainians use it, and the annual volume of transactions reaches USD 100 billion. Some Ukrainian companies operate through foreign jurisdictions, while citizens use international platforms.<\/p>\n

Who is responsible for what<\/p>\n

The NSSMC proposes a sector-based model. Electronic money tokens (EMTs), which are similar in their economic nature to money and payments, so they remain under the jurisdiction of the National Bank. The Commission assumes responsibility for regulating the remaining categories of virtual assets, their public offerings and admission to trading, as well as the authorization and supervision of service providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegulation should be based not on the name of the technology, but on the economic nature of the activity and the risk it poses,\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 Semeniuk explains the rationale behind this proposal.<\/p>\n

The law must at the same time answer four questions: who sets the requirements for the market, who grants authorization to its participants, who oversees it, and who addresses violations.<\/p>\n

The regulator is determined by a law, not by a Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the initial version of the draft law, the market regulator was to be designated by the Cabinet of Ministers by its separate Resolution, in consultation with the National Bank. The Commission insists on a different approach: the law itself must specify the model for the distribution of powers. Businesses and investors need to know who is responsible for the market before the law is passed rather than finding this out after the fact from a government Resolution. This approach also aligns the Ukrainian model with the logic of MiCA, which entrusts supervision to competent financial regulators with clearly defined powers.<\/p>\n

Asset classification: substance is more important than form<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Commission proposes evaluating each asset based on the \u201csubstance over form\u201d principle \u2014 that is, based on its economic nature, the owner\u2019s rights, the issuance method, circulation, and risks \u2014 rather than on its technical name or technology. Take NFTs, for example: a unique digital work of art and a mass-produced series of tokens with an investment function require different regulatory regimes, even though they are technically the same format.<\/p>\n

That same principle will shape the future of real-asset tokenization. The legal status of a token \u2014 whether it represents a stake in ownership, an income right, or a debt claim \u2014 matters more than the technology used to issue it.<\/p>\n

Foreign companies are to be vetted<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Commission rejects the automatic recognition of foreign service providers without national authorization. In a country at war, even a formally reliable jurisdiction for company registration does not guarantee the absence of ties to the aggressor state or the circumvention of sanctions. Instead of automatic recognition, the Commission proposes verifying ownership structure, ultimate beneficial owners, sources of capital, and sanctions risks \u2014 it views AML and compliance with sanctions as part of national security, rather than a mere formal requirement.<\/p>\n

A license does not protect against market risk<\/strong><\/p>\n

A drop in the price of Bitcoin or any other asset remains a risk for the investor and does not constitute grounds for compensation from the government. The regulator intervenes when a market participant misuses client assets, conceals information, manipulates the market, or violates legally established obligations. At the same time, requirements for licensees should remain proportionate to the risk \u2014 an authorization procedure that is too long, costly, or unpredictable will be driving businesses to operate from other jurisdictions rather than in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Commission is already getting ready<\/strong><\/p>\n

The NSSMC is not waiting for the law to be passed: it has already launched a separate workflow track dedicated to virtual assets, is now studying the practice of EU regulators and that of other jurisdictions, and is engaging international experts. Part of the regulatory infrastructure is planned to be funded through license fees paid by market participants.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s target is to pass the law in 2026. After that, secondary legislation, registries, a reporting system, and a transition period for businesses are waiting to be kick-started. The Commission has deliberately refrained from specifying an exact launch date for the regulated market: it considers the premature launch of a system that is not yet technologically or institutionally ready to be a greater risk than a delay of several months.<\/p>\n

The Commission draws particular attention to the banking sector: without access to bank accounts, the legalization of the market will remain merely a formality. An authorized participant with verified owners, an AML system, and reporting mechanisms provides banks with a basis for a risk-based approach rather than an automatic refusal to provide services.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s ultimate goal is not to mimic MiCA, but to create a Ukrainian market that is compatible with EU regulation: high standards for the protection of client assets, ownership transparency, AML, and market abuse prevention, all without unnecessary bureaucracy where it does not help reducing risks.<\/p>\n

The full text of Oleksii Semeniuk\u2019s column is available on the Ekonomichna Pravda website<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a column for Ekonomichna Pravda, Oleksii Semeniuk expressed the Commission\u2019s position on the draft Law of Ukraine No. 10225-d ahead of its second reading Oleksii Semeniuk, Chairman of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[852,3,4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1184424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtualni-aktyvy","category-golovn-novini","category-news","category-rozvitok-fnansovogo-rinka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184424"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1184458,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184424\/revisions\/1184458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nssmc.gov.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}