Ukraine has now stopped debit and credit card deposits and withdrawals on crypto exchanges in its currency, the hryvnia. Even though this changed how investors moved money to and from exchanges immediately, Binance reminded users that peer-to-peer (P2P) services could be used to trade cryptocurrencies.
Following the temporary suspension by the central bank of Ukraine, crypto exchanges such as Binance and Kuna issued official statements informing investors of the inconvenience. The founder of the local cryptocurrency exchange Kuna, Michael Chobanian, said he was aware of the problem but would explain the details later.
Chobanian added that such regulatory judgments have no effect on the Bitcoin ecosystem and stated:
“Regarding the hryvnia card and input/output to the exchange. Yes, it doesn’t work … We are looking for ways out of the situation, under the threat of stopping the entire Ukrainian crypto/card UAH market [translation].”
Binance acknowledged the issue as regulators suspended using the Ukrainian currency on crypto exchanges. Nonetheless, Binance offered an alternate solution: “We suggest using the P2P service so that you can continue to use Binance comfortably.”
The crypto exchange took advantage of the opportunity to notify users that P2P services enable users to exchange crypto and fiat currencies directly with other users, bypassing the need for intermediaries such as banks.
The fact that Ukraine is against crypto is surprising since the country has received more than $70 million in crypto donations since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict began.
“If we used the traditional financial system, it was going to take days […] We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in no time at all via crypto, and what is amazing is that around 60% of suppliers were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this,” said Ukrainian deputy digital minister Alex Bornyakov on Feb. 24
