From Russia to Macedonia: How Cryptocurrencies Are Regulated in Eastern Europe

There's been more news coming from Eastern Europe: last week, Poland's cryptocurrency group the Polish Bitcoin Association complained to the government, blaming fifteen financial institutions in the country for hindering the industry by deliberately denying service to crypto platforms and selectively closing their bank accounts.

One month prior to that, armed men from Ukraine's Security Service broke into the Odessa offices of ForkLog, a major Russian-language crypto news site, and seized its computers and hard drives, claiming that they were using cryptocurrencies to fund separatists in Donbas.

In December, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko formally signed a "Super liberal" bill, signaling state support of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The decree legalizes businesses based on blockchain, as well as any activity related to cryptocurrencies and digital tokens.

While Estonia puts a strong priority on developing and supporting crypto technologies, the state's approach to cryptocurrencies seems more traditional.

The Latvian government has reportedly set up a workgroup that should come up with proposals on how cryptocurrencies might be regulated by July.

On October 10, 2017 Lithuania's central bank issued a document clarifying its position towards ICOs and cryptocurrencies.

Recently, there's been more news on the status of cryptocurrencies in the country.

In early January, Slovakia's finance minister Peter Kazimir, said the state wanted to start paying attention to the taxation of cryptocurrencies.

Its developers claimed that 90 percent of cryptocurrencies were pseudo currencies, while Korona is actually suitable for transactions.