Kuna, Ukraine’s oldest crypto exchange, has been forced to shut down following a ban imposed by Ukrainian authorities. The ban came just days after access to the platform was quietly blocked without any explanation. The founder and CEO of Kuna, Michael Chobanian, revealed the news in Telegram posts, stating that he was not informed by authorities and only found out about the ban when users started reporting the issue.
The ban was a result of an order issued by Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection, directing internet service providers to block access to Kuna’s domain and subdomains. The order cited a decision by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv and a request from Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security, although the specific reasons for the ban were not disclosed. The restriction is set to remain in effect until martial law in Ukraine is lifted.
Founded in 2014, Kuna was a well-known platform for trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum in Ukraine. It played a significant role in promoting crypto adoption in the country, including partnering with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to create a Crypto Fund for Ukraine that received over $5 million in crypto donations to support the Ukrainian army.
In a post on Jan. 2022, Chobanian stated that most internet providers in Ukraine had already enforced the block, indicating that it was only a matter of time before all telecom operators complied. He also mentioned that neither he nor anyone from Kuna was invited to court for the decision, learning about the ban from users in Ukraine.
Despite the ban, Chobanian assured users that Kuna’s infrastructure is hosted on cloud servers in Europe, meaning that only users within Ukraine are affected. He announced the exchange’s closure and gave users two months to withdraw their funds. Chobanian also claimed that the ban was a result of his failure to pay kickbacks to a Ukrainian law enforcement agency that was desperate for funds to support the country’s economy.
According to Ukrainian news outlets, the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine is investigating Kuna for alleged tax evasion, with officials claiming that a forensic audit confirmed intentional tax evasion. The potential losses for Ukraine are estimated to be around $1.5 million due to the tax evasion.
Chobanian now plans to focus on symbiocracy, a government model where people manage themselves while considering Earth’s interconnected systems using artificial intelligence and nature. He also intends to shift his attention to AI and public social activity due to this change in priorities.