Ukrainians' footprint in the crypto industry: tokens, NFTs and wallets
How many Ukrainians hold cryptocurrency
Ukraine is on the 5th position in the list of countries whose citizens hold cryptocurrency in 2023 according to the research company Chainalysis.

We have the United States, Vietnam, Nigeria, India in front of us.

According to Chainalysis, in 2022, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions in Ukraine amounted to about $8 billion. This is almost 10 times more than in 2021.
Ipsos also conducted a study, according to which it was found that more than 6.5 million Ukrainians own cryptocurrency. This represents about 20% of the Ukrainian population. The study showed that the most common cryptocurrencies among Ukrainians are BTC, Ethereum and Tether. Ukrainians mostly own cryptocurrency as an investment asset, as well as for use as a means of payment. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the interest in cryptocurrency has grown significantly. This is due to the fact that cryptocurrency has come to be seen as a safer way to store funds than traditional bank accounts. It is expected that interest in cryptocurrency in Ukraine will continue to grow in the future. Besides owning cryptocurrency, Ukrainians have also left a mark on the industry as developers. That's why we offer a look at which crypto exchanges, tokens, NFTs and wallets have Ukrainian roots.
Ukrainian crypto exchanges
WhiteBIT

WhiteBIT is one of the largest European centralized crypto exchanges hailing from Ukraine, founded in 2018. It is among the top 3 safest crypto exchanges according to Hacken.io and CER.live. The exchange offers more than 350 trading pairs, 270 assets and 10 state currencies. WhiteBIT together with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine created the "Educational project on crypto-literacy and blockchain" on the Diya.Oswita portal. The company cooperates with the National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, is a partner of the National Football Team of Ukraine, soccer clubs "Barcelona" and "Trabzonspor", Lifecell and cyber sports platform FACEIT. The goal of WhiteBIT is the mass introduction of blockchain technology in Ukraine and the world.
At the moment, the exchange is trading with a total volume of more than 2.5 billion dollars per day. However, WhiteBIT is not only an exchange, but a complete ecosystem - its own blockchain Whitechaine, native coin WBT, physical cards for replenishment with cryptocurrency WhiteEX, technical solutions for accepting cryptocurrencies Whitepay, decentralized exchange with a wide range of tools WhiteSwap and much more.
WhiteBIT provides opportunities for spot, margin and futures trading. One of the unique tools this exchange offers is the "Cryptodeposit," which allows users to earn passive income for storing their funds on the exchange. You can read more about how to deposit funds into "Cryptodeposit" and earn passive income from your tokens here.
Advantages of WhiteBIT:
- Wide selection of cryptocurrencies: there are more than 270 cryptocurrencies available on WhiteBIT. This allows users to choose from a wide range of cryptocurrencies to trade and invest in.
- Variety of features: WhiteBIT offers a wide range of features including spot market, margin trading and futures. This makes the exchange attractive to users with different experience levels and investment goals.
- The possibility of verification through Diya is a definite advantage for Ukrainians.
- Security: WhiteBIT uses advanced security technologies to protect users' funds, including the fact that 96% of users' digital assets are stored on cold wallets. The exchange also uses a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to detect and block hacker attacks, so WhiteBIT users' funds are always safe.
WhiteBIT disadvantages:
- Mandatory verification: without verification (KYC), the user cannot use the exchange's features to the fullest extent.
Kuna Exchange

Kuna Exchange is the first Ukrainian crypto exchange created in 2015 by Mikhail Chobanyan. It is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Kuna Exchange has additional licenses from Estonia and the United Kingdom, which gives it the ability to efficiently process transactions across the European Union. Currently, the daily volume of transactions that take place on the exchange exceeds 1.4 million USD, and the number of registered users is about 550 thousand people. Currently, the platform has more than 100 assets for trading. Users can use the Ukrainian hryvnia to trade on the exchange. Kuna Exchange also provides educational resources, helping beginners understand the world of cryptocurrencies and trading.
Benefits of Kuna Exchange:
- No verification required: the exchange provides the opportunity to start trading immediately after registration - you won't have to go through identity verification to do so.
- Possibility to add your token: the project team provides services to add tokens to the exchange for a certain fee. This is an opportunity for blockchain startups to place their coins on the platform.
- Choice of cryptocurrencies: more than 50 cryptocurrencies are represented on Kuna Exchange.
Disadvantages of Kuna Exchange:
- Low popularity: Kuna Exchange has not enjoyed widespread popularity compared to its larger competitors so far. This affects the overall trading volume, which could have been more significant with the higher prominence of the platform.
- Uncomfortable charts: the exchange's interface lacks some of the features familiar to better-known exchanges. The charts embedded in the exchange have too few tools to work comfortably.
Qmall

Qmall is a Ukrainian crypto exchange launched in 2021 by Mykola Udiansky and Bohdan Prilepa. In the spring of 2022, Qmall received a license from the European Union, which allowed it to operate legally in the EU countries. The company is headquartered in Ukraine. The main page of the Qmall website expresses the concept of the exchange - "The first meta-universe exchange - reliable and its own".

Qmall advantages:
- Possibility of replenishment via City24: one of the advantages of the exchange is the possibility to replenish fiat account in cash via City24 terminals. This function is available only for users living within Ukraine.
- Possibility of verification via Diya.
- Wide choice of cryptocurrencies: the exchange offers more than 70 assets for trading.
- Variety of functions: users have access to spot trading, cryptocurrency exchanger (P2P), fiat deposit, lunchepad, staking and NFT marketplace.
Disadvantages of Qmall:
- Inability to trade derivatives: the exchange lacks the ability to trade futures contracts and other derivatives.
- Lack of a guide to using the exchange for beginners.
- Lack of bonus programs.
- It takes longer to withdraw funds than on other platforms.
- Uncomfortable interface.
- Low liquidity.
Tokens of Ukrainian developers
WhiteBIT Token (WBT)

WBT Token is a utility token issued by the European cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBIT. It was issued in 2022 and is based on the Ethereum blockchain. As of March 14, 2024, WBT Token has a market capitalization of approximately $749 million. The token is currently priced at $8.65 per coin.

WhiteBIT Token (WBT) is an internal token of the exchange, it connects the exchange ecosystem with other projects created on its basis. A total of 400,000,000 WBT tokens have been issued. Half of these tokens (200 million) are treasury tokens and are subject to unlocking for 3 years, starting from the end of the final round of private sale token unlocking. The tokens allocated to the team and company will also be unlocked in the final round. Thus, the volume of tokens in the first three rounds will be approximately 60% of treasuries and the final round will be around 40%. An additional 120 million tokens (3/5 of the total) will be allocated to the trust funds.
The WBT token gives certain advantages to those who own it and hold it on the WhiteBIT exchange. You can take advantage of its benefits in two ways: by holding WBT on the Main Balance (Holding) and by locking it in storage (Holding).
Owning WhiteBIT tokens gives users up to 90% discount on taker order commissions and even 100% discount on maker order commissions.

Holding WhiteBIT tokens gives even more privileges to users:
- Referral benefits: WBT holders in storage receive an increased share of commissions earned by their referrals. This is an additional reward for supporting the exchange.
- Special maker commissions: for WBT holders, there is a new maker commission structure that overcomes the standard rates. This means even bigger discounts for those who decide to hold tokens.
- Exemption from blockchain commissions: holders are entitled to a certain number of free withdrawals of ERC-20 and ETH standard tokens per day, saving money on transactions.
- Free AML checks: holders are also entitled to a certain number of free AML checks, ensuring the security of their transactions.
WBT coins are actively traded on leading centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Some of the popular platforms for acquiring and trading WhiteBIT Token, besides WhiteBIT, are Gate.io and MEXC.
KUN Token

KUN is an internal token designed to enable internal transactions on the Kuna exchange. Its release occurred in 2018 and since then it has remained an internal asset, unavailable for trading with other cryptocurrencies or on other platforms.
Only USDT is used to purchase KUN. The current price of the asset is around 4 USDT. Holders of this token can get discounts on exchange commissions of up to 50% and participate in voting on new listings.

The QMALL token is a native asset of the Qmall exchange, created for use in all products within the exchange ecosystem. At the moment, the price of QMALL is $0.07838. The token's trading volume has reached $52114. There are 67 million QMALL in circulation and the market capitalization of this token is $5.29 million.

Users who hold this token receive a 50% discount on commissions for trading any trading pair.
QMALL can be purchased on various centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges: Qmall, PancakeSwap (v2) and Bybit.
Cryptocurrency (UAX)

UAX is a stablecoin pegged to the exchange rate of the Ukrainian hryvnia, which means a constant ratio of its price to one hryvnia. The project was launched in February 2020 with the issuance of the first batch of UAX in the amount of 1 million tokens. These tokens are backed by real hryvnias received from the sale of bitcoins. The investor in this project was Mikhail Chobanyan, CEO of the Ukrainian exchange Kuna.
Karbo (KRB)

Karbo (KRB) is the first cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which originated back in 2016. Its creators are still not revealing their names. At the moment, the value of one Karbo (KRB) is 0.058812 USD. A trading volume of $5.65 was recorded in the last 24 hours. The total number of KRB coins in circulation is 9.77 million and the market capitalization of this cryptocurrency is $574,309.

As it is clear from the trading volume, this cryptocurrency is not popular, nevertheless, we could not not say anything about it, as it was the first Ukrainian cryptocurrency.
NFT tokens made in UA
NFT tokens FC Metalist 1925

"Metalist 1925" in partnership with Blocksport presented their own NFT - unique digital objects, including photos, cards and video moments from soccer matches. "Metalist 1925 became the first Ukrainian club to own its own NFT. The distinctive feature of NFT is their genuineness, as each object has a unique code record on the blockchain.
FC Shakhtar NFT tokens

Last year FC Shakhtar launched charity NFT in support of Ukraine. As part of this campaign, the club held an auction. Everyone could buy the team's NFTs, and the 11 people who offered the highest price also received eleven jerseys with players' autographs.
NFT "Nasha Ryaba"

Ukrainian agricultural holding MHP, known for its brand "Nasha Ryaba", decided to enter the world of NFT by creating its own unique digital tokens. At the auction, the company successfully sold 20 such tokens, earning 160 thousand hryvnias. The starting price of the lot was set at $20, and the maximum price reached $210. The proceeds were donated to charity.
I see UA wallets
Hideez Wallet

Hideez Group presented the first hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies in Ukraine - Hideez Wallet, based on Hideez Key smart fob technology. Hideez Key was originally created to store electronic certificates and keys, and its technical base was used in the development of the wallet. It is a PC and phone compatible device. To sign transactions, the wallet has an innovative technology "Invisible Pin" (Invisible Code), which works on the basis of unique combinations of short and long button presses. It is believed that this code is virtually impossible to snoop and intercept. In addition, the private key can be copied to different devices for added convenience.

Trustee Plus

Trustee Plus was originally a hot wallet where users could freely buy and sell cryptocurrencies using any Visa/MasterCard bank card. Here, users could trade and store the most popular tokens without transaction fees. The startup team is led by Vadym Hrusha, a Ukrainian entrepreneur, together with a team from the United States.
Recently, Trustee Plus has reached a new level: it introduced a new cryptocurrency Mastercard, which can be issued by anyone. It can be used in the same way as a PrivatBank or Monobank card. Moreover, it can even be added to Apple Wallet and used Apple Pay. Ukrainians have a unique opportunity to pay for goods and services using digital assets. This virtual card is activated instantly after downloading and verification, allowing the owner to make payments in various stores, cafes, pharmacies, gas stations and online purchases. In addition, verification is also available through "Dia". There are no commissions for service and replenishment, only 0.5% of the transaction amount is charged when converting cryptocurrency. This cryptocard provides opportunities for the use of digital assets in everyday life.

Near Protocol

The Near protocol is software created by Ukrainian Ilya Polosukhin and Alexander Skidanov. It is designed to stimulate computer collaboration as a basis for developing and running decentralized applications. It is based on the principle of sharding, which involves dividing the network infrastructure into separate parts, so that each computer (node) processes only a fragment of all transactions. This distribution of tasks across different segments of the blockchain is aimed at improving network performance and scalability.
Near functions similarly to centralized storage systems such as Amazon Web Services, providing a framework for building applications. However, unlike such systems, Near is not managed by a single entity, but rather decentralized through a network of computers. This allows developers to host their applications on a public network using an embedded cryptocurrency, the Near token, similar to how AWS provides the ability to deploy code in the cloud without having to build your own infrastructure.
Near's features are:
Speed. Near is special in that it only takes five minutes to build an application. Near is capable of processing more than 100,000 transactions every second and generating a block of data in one second. In comparison, the Solana blockchain is capable of processing approximately 3,000 transactions per second and the Peak blockchain is capable of 65,000 transactions. Ethereum processes about 15 transactions per second, while Bitcoin processes between 5 and 7. Solana creates one block of data in 0.4 seconds, while Ethereum and Bitcoin do it in 10 seconds and 10 minutes, respectively.
Cost. Blockchains like Near charge a fee for transactions. However, as Near's creators point out, their transaction fees are ten thousand times less than Ethereum's, amounting to just a few cents compared to Ethereum's $10-40.
Ease of use. Near is designed to be used even by those who are not well versed in blockchain. For example, creating decentralized applications (dapps) requires a simple registration process, which makes using the blockchain invisible to the user. This makes it possible to attract a wider audience.
A native token called Near was created for the Near Protocol. Near is the main currency in the Near Protocol ecosystem. This ERC-20 compliant token has a limited issuance of 1 billion units. The Near token is used to pay network fees for transactions and for storing data on the network. Smart contract developers can receive a portion of the fees generated by their contracts. At the same time, to maintain Near's scarcity, a portion of the commissions are destroyed (burned).
Near token holders can participate in staking via the Near wallet, which allows them to earn rewards of 4.5%. In addition, Near holders can influence decisions on the network by participating in votes and offering ideas to improve the platform and its products.
Ukrainians' contribution to the crypto industry: the CRYPTOLOGY.KEY team's opinion
The contribution of Ukrainians to the crypto industry is quite significant and deserves special attention on the world stage. Ukraine, occupying the fifth position in the world in terms of interest in cryptocurrencies, demonstrates its influence through the creation of a number of innovative projects that have a significant impact on the entire crypto industry. One of the most prominent examples of Ukrainian contribution to this sphere is the WhiteBIT crypto exchange. This platform goes beyond the usual exchange, transforming into a real ecosystem: spot, margin and futures trading, DEX WhiteSwap, a platform for P2P trading Bitcoin Global, crypto-payment system Whitepay, the tool "Cryptodeposit", which allows you to receive passive income for storing your funds on the exchange - all these are WhiteBIT products. In addition to WhiteBIT, Ukrainians continue to develop other worthwhile projects, thus strengthening their positions in the world of cryptocurrencies.
One of the important aspects of crypto industry development in Ukraine is the multitude of cryptocommunities offering courses on learning cryptocurrencies and trading. This helps to increase the literacy of the population in the field of cryptocurrencies and ensures the formation of qualified professionals for the industry. However, it is very important to find and choose a worthwhile community with professionals at the helm. The Cryptology.Key team offers you a wide range of products and courses to help you get the knowledge you need from the pros in the field. With us, you will understand how financial markets function and get all the knowledge you need to succeed in trading.
Frequently asked questions
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What are the Ukrainian crypto exchanges?
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What Ukrainian crypto wallets exist?
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