While the US has launched a special agency for crypto, Ukraine chooses to “oversee it”, putting its regulatory framework under the control of the national securities agency.
The US launch National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team
As a speaker at Wednesday’s Aspen Institute Cyber Summit, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the launch of a special agency dedicated to combating money laundering and cybercrime with virtual assets.
Monaco has extensive experience in investigating ransomware attacks. Her previous work record includes the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. Monaco was part of a task force that helped the US Department of Justice recover 2.3 million USD worth of Bitcoin. She now wants to strengthen the United States’ efforts in safeguarding the use of cryptocurrencies in cooperation with cyber prosecutors and money-laundering experts. She noted:
Cryptocurrency exchanges want to be the banks of the future. We need to make sure that folks can have confidence when they’re using these systems, and we need to make sure we’re poised to root out the abuse that can take hold of them.
No special regulatory body for Ukraine
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has returned a bill to parliament that seeks to establish a regulatory framework for virtual assets. The bill is supposed to cement Ukraine’s role as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, but Zelensky shuns the budgetary costs associated with establishing a regulatory agency focused on crypto assets.
Instead, Zelensky proposes to give oversight of crypto-assets into the hands of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission. The regulatory body is under the jurisdiction of the president, but accountable to the Ukrainian parliament.
