Bitcoin Reserve Bill Enters Ukrainian Parliament In Historic Move

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has registered draft law No. 13356, a measure that would add “virtual assets” such as Bitcoin to the roster of instruments the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) may hold in its gold-and-foreign-currency reserves. The bill was filed on 10 June during the legislature’s 13th session of the ninth convocation and lists eight cross-party sponsors, including first deputy finance-committee chair Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

The parliamentary bill card confirms that the Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Committee has been designated main rapporteur, with the Digital Transformation, Budget, Anti-Corruption and EU-Integration committees assigned as co-reviewers.

Ukraine Introduces Bill To Add Bitcoin To NBU Reserves

According to an explanatory note published by the LigaZakon legal portal, the draft would insert virtual assets into the list of internationally recognised reserve assets under the 1999 Law “On the National Bank of Ukraine.”

It would also authorise three new channels for acquiring such assets—direct market purchases, acceptance of income denominated in virtual assets and borrowings of virtual assets from multilateral lenders or foreign central banks—and would permit their disposal either through open-market sales for monetary-policy purposes or through repayment of virtual-asset liabilities to official creditors.

Zheleznyak emphasises that the language is permissive rather than compulsory. “We give the National Bank the right to include virtual assets in Ukraine’s reserves. How, when and how much is left entirely to the regulator,” he told Korrespondent.net after the filing, adding that the proposal “does not oblige” the NBU but positions Ukraine “within global financial innovation.” In a separate comment to business daily LIGA.net he stressed that timing, method and volume would remain “the discretion of the central bank,” reiterating that the bill is written broadly on purpose.

The full text of the bill has yet to be posted on the Rada portal; several Ukrainian legal outlets note that the PDF remains inaccessible as of 18 June. Nonetheless, the outline now before committees is the clearest legislative attempt to date to give the NBU explicit authority to hold Bitcoin alongside its existing reserve assets—monetary gold, IMF Special Drawing Rights, foreign-currency cash, and high-grade securities.

Ukraine’s international reserves stood at $44.53 billion on 1 June, according to the NBU data cited by Sudova Yurydychna Hazeta. Supporters argue that allowing a crypto component would diversify that stockpile and could serve as a back-up settlement rail if wartime disruptions sever traditional channels.

If enacted, Kyiv would join a very small group of sovereigns whose law explicitly permits Bitcoin to be held as a reserve asset; El Salvador, which disclosed a strategic holding of just over 6,200 BTC, remains the only country currently reporting such positions.

Under Rada procedure the draft now awaits a first-reading recommendation from the Finance Committee, after which it can be scheduled for plenary debate. No timetable has been announced, but the bill’s cross-factional sponsorship and the absence of immediate objections from the central bank suggest the proposal will receive serious consideration in the coming months.

At press time, BTC traded at $10,976.