Binance plans for a card payment feature for Ukrainian users

In an interview with the business magazine Forbes Ukraine on January 31, Kirill Khomyakov, the new general manager of Binance’s Ukraine branch, shared the company’s plans to release a payment card in Ukraine that has a ‘balance of cryptocurrencies and automatic conversion at the time of payment’.

Although it is not yet available for Ukrainian users, Khomyakov stressed that they are working with local partners to make this possible in 2022 as stated in the same interview with Forbes. Moreover, he said that nonfungible tokens (NFTs) can be traded through the marketplace of their platform.

He then noted that Ukraine was in third place globally in terms of the size of NFT-related activities in the marketplace. As a result, Binance is looking into the possibility of creating a new project related to allowing fan tokens of a popular sports team in the country. As of now, it is yet to be announced which team will be picked. 

On that note, Oleksandr Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation recently shared in an interview with local financial publication Minfin on August 6, 2021, that a new bill regarding cryptocurrencies has been proposed and is in the parliament for second reading.

In the previously mentioned bill, Bornyakov said that it would now be ‘legal to pay with cryptocurrencies’ through payment intermediaries that offer crypto-to-fiat conversions. He also highlighted that cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender in the country but they do allow crypto purchases and give certain benefits to having these digital assets. Some of these include having the protection of their virtual assets and getting to legally exchange cryptos.

Apart from Ukraine, Binance also planned to release the same crypto payment card in Russia amidst the country’s ban on crypto transactions. This was announced in 2020 but the company has not released the said product.

According to Binance Eastern European director Gleb Kostarev, ‘at the moment, the launch of the card in Russia is not a priority’ in a statement with Cointelegraph on September 7, 2020. Additionally, he noted that they cannot state the official launch date given the legal restrictions.

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