Monobank will not implement cryptocurrency bitcoin payments for users

Monobank has no plans to add bitcoin as a payment option for its services. The co-founder of the service, Mykhailo Rogalsky, said this in an interview with Forbes Ukraine. According to him, the first cryptocurrency «has a very bad reputation» among European and Ukrainian regulators.

«Since we have our own core important business, it would be illogical to jeopardize it by working with a high-risk asset,» Rogalsky emphasized.

He also noted that the issue of cryptocurrency in Ukraine is currently «dangerous.» The top manager believes that the only advantage of digital assets over fiat is the ability to bypass local regulatory control.

«I don’t think that bitcoin will ever be free to circulate in our country, precisely because the NBU traditionally regulates the foreign exchange market. My personal opinion is that the National Bank [не схвалить] to allow banks to freely conduct crypto transactions,» the Monobank co-founder summarized.

As a reminder, in July 2021, Monobank planned to launch bitcoin cards that would allow the bank’s customers to conduct cryptocurrency transactions. The project was supposed to be implemented in partnership with the WhiteBIT cryptocurrency exchange. However, in December of the same year, it became known that the National Bank did not approve such ambitions.

It is worth noting that on March 16, 2022, PrivatBank temporarily banned its Ukrainian clients from depositing hryvnia on cryptocurrency exchanges. This restriction is also related to the NBU’s decision and is valid for the entire period of martial law. At the same time, monobank reported that their cross-border payment service also faced problems. However, «there should be no difficulties with hryvnia transactions within Ukraine.»

Last year, at the end of April, the NBU restricted cryptocurrency purchases to UAH 100,000 per person per month. The goal is to reduce the outflow of capital from Ukraine.