Ukraine temporarily suspended the use of its national currency, the hryvnia, through bank cards for fiat deposits and withdrawals on cryptocurrency exchanges. While the move immediately affected how investors move funds to and from exchanges, Binance reminded users how peer-to-peer (P2P) services are useful when trading cryptocurrencies.
Following the temporary suspension of the Ukrainian central bank, cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Kuna made official announcements informing investors of the drawbacks. Michael Chobanian, the founder of local crypto exchange Kuna, acknowledged the service outage. However the he said he would explain the nuances of development later.
Chobanian further noted how such regulatory decisions have no impact on the Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem, adding that:
“Regarding the hryvnia card and the entry/exit to the exchange. Yes, it doesn’t work… We are looking for ways out of the situation, under the threat of stopping the entire UAH market of cryptocurrencies/Ukrainian cards. [translation].”
Binance recognized the problem when regulators suspended the use of hryvnia on cryptocurrency exchanges. However, Binance had a workaround:
“We suggest using the P2P service so that you can continue to use Binance comfortably.”
The cryptocurrency exchange took the opportunity to inform users that P2P services allow them to exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies directly with other users without the need for intermediaries such as banks.
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Ukraine’s anti-crypto stance is surprising considering the country has raked in over $70 million in crypto donations since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
“If we used the traditional financial system, it would take us days […] We were able to secure the purchase of vital items in a very short time through crypto, and the amazing thing is that around 60% of vendors were able to accept crypto, I didn’t expect this,” said Ukraine’s Deputy Digital Minister Alex Bornyakov. on February 24.
