Ukrainian e-bank Monobank, to offer Bitcoin trading this month

The Ukrainian government is doing some serious progress towards regulating cryptocurrency, so the fact that a major local e-bank just announced that it will offer a debit card, with Bitcoin trading included, doesn’t come as a surprise for many.

According to an official statement, Monobank has already completed a pilot integration with a trading platform, allowing users to buy and sell Bitcoin using a debit card. Co-founder Oleg Gorokhovsky added that they are expecting to release the feature later in July, as soon as the approval from the National Bank of Ukraine is received.

A bank by crypto enthusiasts

Launched four years ago, in 2017, Monobank is currently operating under the license of Universal Bank, owned by Ukfraine’s former deputy prime minister Sergey Tigipko. Back in 2020, it has a customerbase of over 2.5 million.

Co-founder Oleg Gorokhovsky, who is also a former deputy board chairman at the largest commercial bank in the country, PrivatBank, is known for being a huge Bitcoin supporter.

Earlier this year, he admitted that one of the factors that made him believe that BTC and cryptocurrency, in general, is here to stay, was Tesla’s $1.5 billion BTC purchase. Besides this, he is also an investor in the world’s biggest token, in terms of market cap, believing that by 2022 it will reach $100,000.

A first step in the process of nationwide adoption?

Authorities in Ukraine are making important progress with an entire set of bills related to digital currencies. Last Wednesday, deputy minister of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov, announced that they recommended the adoption of a new version of the “On Birtual Assets” bill, in the second reading.

Finally, last week, the parliament passed new legislation regulating payment methods, which includes the regulation of Ukraine’s central bank digital currency, thus making Bitcoin trading with cards like the one offered by Monobank much easier.