Pavel Durov’s team advised the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on cryptocurrencies.

 The Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov said that his department is in contact with the team of the developer of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov.

According to Fedorov, he is familiar with Durov’s team. Employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation received advice on bills related to virtual assets and cryptocurrency

“I know Durov’s team. I know all its management, we communicate, consult even on bills related to cryptocurrency, virtual assets, and so on.”

The Minister said that he actively uses the Telegram messenger for fast communications. However, the information exchanged by officials is protected as much as possible, and all documents pass through electronic document management.

“Of course, questions of national importance do not need to be sent in messengers, this is understandable,” added Mikhail Fedorov.

Answering the question about which of the messengers is the safest for him, the head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation noted that he most often uses Telegram and WhatsApp.

Recall that on December 2, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the first reading adopted as a basis the draft law “On virtual assets” regulating operations with cryptocurrencies in the country. The bill classifies virtual assets (VA) as an intangible good.

The function of the market regulator is assigned to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, and in some cases to the National Bank and the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market.

According to experts, the daily volume of cryptocurrency transactions in Ukraine is about $150-200 million. One of the authors of the document, Deputy Oleksiy Zhmerenetsky, noted that the bill will allow cryptocurrency companies to pay taxes and allow specialized foreign firms to cooperate with Ukrainian banks and invest in the industry.

Ukraine did not follow the Russian path of banning virtual assets, because this market is a growth point for Ukraine’s GDP and an opportunity to become one of the world’s technology leaders. In addition, it makes no sense to prohibit something that is technically impossible to control, as we have already seen in the case of blocking Telegram in Russia.

Recall that Roskomnadzor has added the site of the Binance crypto exchange to the list of banned sites in Russia.