Tether, Bitcoin most popular with Ukraine officials, crypto declarations double during war

A growing number of officials in Ukraine are investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) while the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT) is the most popular store of value among the digital assets in their possession.

Declarations of government employees reporting crypto holdings have more than doubled since the beginning of Russia’s full-fledged invasion of the country three years ago. According to a new study, such filings have increased by 10% only in the course of the past year.

Over 2,000 Ukrainian officials declare crypto assets in 2024

Ukrainians working for the government are increasingly reporting cryptocurrency holdings on annual declarations required by national law. 2,113 such filings have been registered in 2024, the crypto news outlet Forklog unveiled, quoting a recently published study.

According to the information gathered by the public registry data monitoring service Opendatabot, the number of crypto declarations filed last year was 2.2 times higher than before the start of the full-scale war with Russia in early 2022, confirming a rising trend.

In 2024 alone, declarations mentioning cryptocurrency increased by 10% over the previous year – 1,917 were filed in 2023. The number jumped from 960 in 2021 to 1,481 in 2022, the year when the armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine by land, air and sea.

The report reveals that the USD-backed stablecoin Tether, listed in a little more than 6% of the declarations, has been the most popular choice last year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, comes second with 5.5%, followed closely by Ethereum at 5.4%. Another 3.1% of the officials keep money in XRP and 2.4% have invested in DOGE.

“Officials most frequently declare Tether (USDT), with 802 government employees reporting holdings. Despite market fluctuations, Bitcoin (BTC, XBT) remains in second place, appearing in 731 declarations. Ethereum (ETH) follows closely, declared by 713 officials,” Opendatabot detailed.

Ukraine police officers most active in declaring crypto holdings

Officials from law enforcement agencies account for the largest share of filed crypto listing declarations, the authors of the study found. With 322 filings, 15% of the total, the National Police of Ukraine leads the chart, followed by the Prosecutor’s Office with 240 crypto owners, or more than 11%.

A similar number of declarations have been submitted by representatives of the judiciary, 227. Of the men and women serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU), 77 declared owning cryptocurrency. Crypto holders working for the National Anti-corruption Bureau (NABU) were only 38.

In terms of geographical distribution, the Ukrainian capital city and the surrounding Kyiv region lead with 582 and 185 officials having digital assets in their wallets, respectively, followed by Kharkiv Oblast with 172. The regions of Dnipropetrovsk, 167 declarations, and Lviv in Western Ukraine, with 133, are in the top five as well.

Opendatabot has listed some of the government officials with the largest declared crypto holdings. Among them is Oleg Bondarenko, head of the parliamentary Committee on Environmental Policy, who owns 80 BTC valued at 279.4 million Ukrainian hryvnias (nearly $6.8 million) as of April 1, 2025.

Leader among Ethereum investors is Ukrainian lawmaker Serhii Maizel with his 200 ETH, worth 15.5 million hryvnia, (over $376,000). Vitalii Brovko, who heads a department at the Prosecutor General’s Office, has declared 847,908 USDT or around 35 million in Ukrainian fiat (almost $850 million).

“Some former officials reported losing access to their holdings,” the data monitoring service noted. These include Roman Saramaha, who had over 380 BTC when he was deputy head of the State Geological Service back in 2021, and Ihor Osipov, a member of a district council in Odesa who claimed to have lost some 1,800 ETH that he had put on his last declaration.

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