According to latest reports, Michael Chobanian, founder of KUNA bitcoin Agency and Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine, has abandoned his plans to introduce a draft law on cryptocurrency regulation to the Ukrainian Parliament, Forklog reported.

“Crypto is totally legal. You can use it by all means. As for legal entities, there’s not much sense in doing anything for them. Even if we pass the most liberal laws on virtual currencies, I seriously doubt anyone would open companies in Ukraine. Other 147 taxes and currency regulation are still here, let alone the mayhem caused by law enforcement agencies (the Ministry of the interior, State Fiscal Service, the Security Service of Ukraine, the General Prosecutor’s office, courts, etc). I’d rather leave it as it is. It’s a perfect format for a time like this,” Chobanian told ForkLog (Translated version taken from Bitmakler).

KUNA Bitcoin Agency is the first cryptocurrency agency in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and aims to build bitcoin infrastructure in CIS region. It is the first in the region to officially buy/sell bitcoin and has installed the first commercial BTM in the region.

According to a document posted on the Bitcoin Foundation Ukraine website, due to the rapid growth of virtual currencies, it has become important to develop a favorable regulatory framework – ‘Ukrainian Bitlicense’ – that will determine the rules on which the cryptocurrency businesses in the region will run and prepare Ukrainian banking system to adapt to the new cross-border financial model of the world.

ITC.ua reported in December that Chobanian together with a group of lawyers was planning to prepare a bill legalizing cryptocurrency Bitcoin in Ukraine.

“If Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament – FL) passes the draft law, Bitcoin will become legal, and companies will be free to effect payments in the currency,” ITC.ua reported back then.

In November 2014, a document issued by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said it considers bitcoin “a money substitute that has no real value, and cannot be used by individuals and legal entities in Ukraine as a mean of payment”. However, a year later in December 2015, Natalia Lapko, the head of the Payment Systems Department at the National Bank of Ukraine, said that the regulator is closely watching the rapid growth of digital currencies and does not rule out the possibility of integrating bitcoin into the Ukrainian financial system.