Ukrainian authorities have blocked access to Kuna, the country’s first crypto exchange, operational since 2014.
Kuna, Ukraine’s oldest crypto exchange, shut down just days after authorities quietly blocked access to its platform without offering any explanation. The news came from Kuna’s founder and CEO, Michael Chobanian, who said in Telegram posts that he wasn’t informed by authorities and only found out about the ban when users started reporting the issue.
The restriction follows an order issued by Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection. The order directs Ukrainian’s internet service providers to block access to Kuna’s domain as well as its subdomains.
The directive cites a decision by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv and a request from Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security, though it doesn’t specify what the case against Kuna is about. The order states that the restriction will remain in effect until martial law in Ukraine is lifted.
Founded in 2014, Kuna became one of Ukraine’s well-known platforms to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Over the years, it played a key role in facilitating crypto adoption in the country. For instance, in early 2022, Kuna partnered with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and created a special dedicated Crypto Fund for Ukraine which accumulated over $100 million worth of crypto donations to support the Ukrainian army.
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In a Telegram post on Jan. 24, Chobanian said that most internet providers in Ukraine had already enforced the block. “What we know for now: most providers have already complied with the SSSCIP requirement, which means it’s only a matter of time before the remaining telecom operators follow suit.”
He also pointed out that neither he nor anyone from Kuna was invited to court for the decision. “We were not called to court, as you can imagine, and we learned about the blocking from users in Ukraine,” Chobanian wrote. Despite the restriction, he reassured users that Kuna’s infrastructure is hosted on cloud servers in Europe, meaning that only users inside Ukraine are affected.
While it’s still unclear why Kuna was banned, Chobanian made another post on Jan. 30 announcing the exchange’s closure and telling users they have two months to withdraw their funds. He also made it clear that the ban came after he failed to pay kickbacks to a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that was desperate to find money “at any costs” to fund the country’s economy.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to meet with all the [law enforcement] agencies. I’m familiar with all the law enforcement officers in Ukraine, except for the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine. Well, in our country, it’s the usual thing for law enforcement agencies to get to know through raids, as a rule. But since I’m not in Ukraine, and it’s extremely difficult to raid a virtual thing, that’s why they blocked the domain.”
Michael Chobanian
According to Ukrainian news outlets, the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine is investigating Kuna for alleged tax evasion. Officials reportedly claim a forensic audit confirmed “intentional tax evasion,” leading to a court decision to block the platform. A law enforcement source told local media that Ukraine’s potential losses amount to around 50 million hryvnia (approximately $1.3 million) due to the tax evasion.
Now, Chobanian says he wants to focus on symbiocracy, a government model where people manage themselves while considering all of Earth’s interconnected systems, using artificial intelligence and nature. He’s also shifting his attention to AI and “public social activity.” Because of this change in priorities, he announced that as of Jan. 30, Kuna has shut down all of its commercial operations. Crypto.news reached out to the Kuna team multiple times but didn’t get a response.
Still, despite the ban, the Kuna founder remains optimistic, urging the community to focus on global trends and pointing to the growing interest in Bitcoin from the Trump administration.
“Crypto enthusiasts in Ukraine don’t need to be told how to use crypto freely, so we are watching the crypto revolution in the U.S., Bitcoin being added to foreign exchange reserves, and the price of the TRUMP memecoin.”
Michael Chobanian
Back in August 2024, Chobanian went off on Ukraine’s central bank, saying the National Bank of Ukraine had basically “killed” the local crypto market, pushing him to turn his focus to Europe. He called the state of Ukraine’s crypto scene a disaster and blamed it on the bank’s strict restrictions on hryvnia-based crypto transactions.
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