It is noted that testing will take place this year.

The second stage of testing the e-hryvnia will take place in the second half of this year. Banks, non-banking financial institutions and their clients will be able to join this process.

The National Bank of Ukraine noted on Facebook that the first stage of testing the e-hryvnia was carried out in 2018, but in a closed environment. This included the introduction of the “Electronic hryvnia” platform, the release of a limited amount of digital hryvnia into circulation and the testing of operations with e-hryvnia exclusively by NBU employees and several companies participating in the project.

Director of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development of the NBU Andrey Podderegin said that all payment transactions with e-hryvnia during testing will take place on a single technological platform, the operator of which will be the NBU.

“During testing, we plan to study the effectiveness of the selected technological platform and the ease of using e-hryvnia for payment transactions, its advantages in practice, which will help make a decision on the feasibility of its large-scale release in Ukraine,” Podderegin explained.

Electronic hryvnia – main news

At the end of 2016, the NBU began a research project on the introduction of e-hryvnia, a national currency based on blockchain technology, which can minimize transaction costs for transferring money from one participant in the Ukrainian payment market to another and simultaneously carry them out at almost instantaneous speed. As part of the project, electronic hryvnias in the equivalent of 5 thousand hryvnias were put into circulation.

On February 21, 2020, the head of the NBU, Yakov Smoliy, announced that the NBU has a proven technological model for issuing digital hryvnia, but the final decision has not yet been made.

On April 6, 2021, the NBU extended the transition period to resolve issues related to the issuance of electronic hryvnia until June 15, 2021.