Ukaraine: Michael Chobanian, a 37-year-old buccaneer who was educated at a British private school, is fluent in both English and the folkways of Ukraine, which he considers as a mainly lawless frontier that he enjoys traversing in his black Ferrari 612. He is the founder of Kuna, one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges in Eastern Europe. His home nation, he believes, is an excellent place to do business if you have the courage to navigate a crooked system. The anything-goes attitude has plagued Ukraine for years, and now the government is seeking to put an end to it with the help of Bitcoin.
The country’s Parliament passed a bill legalising and regulating Bitcoin in early September, the first step in an ambitious push to mainstream the country’s burgeoning crypto economy while also rebranding the entire country. “The big idea,” said Alexander Bornyakov, deputy minister at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, “is to become one of the top jurisdictions in the world for crypto firms.” “We feel that this is the new economy, that this is the future, and that this is something that will help our economy grow.” On a roadshow, including a summer tour, Ukraine is the ultimate place for entrepreneurs looking for low taxes, minimal bureaucracy, and plenty of experienced engineers.
Ukrainians are among the most enthusiastic cryptocurrency users in the world, placing fourth on Chainalysis’ Global Crypto Adoption Index. Every year, about $8 billion worth of it enters and departs the country, and the volume of crypto transactions, estimated at $150 million per day, currently exceeds the volume of interbank fiat currency swaps. The goal is to increase the percentage of GDP that technology contributes from 5% to 10%, as well as the number of people employed in the industry from 500,000 to 500,000. According to the World Bank, technology should contribute $18 billion to Ukraine’s GDP by 2025, when the country’s GDP is expected to reach $180 billion.