The latest statements by Ukrainian public officials revealed a billion dollar amount of money they allegedly own in bitcoin. An online incentive collected data from 791.872 state employees and 652 respondents who disclosed their crypto holdings.
The largest cryptocurrency holder in the report owns 18.000 BTC
According to the Opendatabot website, officials currently own a total of 46.351 BTC, worth more than 75 billion hryvnia ($ 2,66 billion) at press time. The declaration campaign ended on March 31, 2021.
But bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency found among the collective statements of Ukrainian state employees. According to the report, ethereum (quotation ETH), litecoin (LTC), cardano (ADA), stellar (XLM), IOTA, bitcoin cash (BCH), and bitcoin gold (BTG) are the other cryptocurrencies that officials have invested in.
Most Ukrainian state employees who own cryptocurrencies work on city councils, the defense ministry and the national police, Opendatabot said. However, there are also cryptocurrency holders who work in the prosecutor's office and village councils across Ukraine.
So far, the official with the highest amount of bitcoin is Mishalov Vyacheslav Dmitrovich, a deputy from the city council of Dnipro as he owns 18.000 BTC at the time of the statement.
In the wake of Opendatabot's findings, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov praised the collective documents, saying they show that the country's officials are increasingly becoming "progressive and forward-thinking investors than we thought."
The anti-corruption agency issues warnings on officials, who may have provided inaccurate data
But the fact that a report like this was made public was not well received by everyone in the country. Sergiy Petukhov, head of the mandatory inspection department at the National Corruption Prevention Agency, said his office conducted 250 audits this year, including state employees of bitcoin holdings.
He said some officials said their documents contained errors and warned about Opendatabot's findings: "If we find that the information provided about holding cryptocurrency is not accurate, this is the basis for administrative or criminal liability."
Ukrainian officials are required to disclose their assets in an electronic declaration process, a project launched by the country to reduce corruption. Opendatabot is a service that monitors the registration data of Ukrainian companies and officials.
In short, the possession of cryptocurrencies abroad begins to become a thing of the state and who knows, as soon as possible they could also be taxed. With us, those who own cryptocurrencies are not yet required to declare it in the tax return, but should things change, we will surely let you know on our pages. Meanwhile, we ask you what do you think of this report on the bitcoin holdings of Ukrainian officials? Let us know your ideas in the comments section below.
