Uzbekistan Raises Fees for Crypto Operations

The National Agency for Prospective Projects of Uzbekistan has introduced new guidelines increasing monthly fees for crypto market.

The National Agency for Prospective Projects (NAPP) of Uzbekistan has issued a new guideline that raises the monthly fees that crypto market participants must pay.

Uzbekistan Raises Crypto Fees

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, the government issued the mandate.The official announcement states that the Ministry of Justice modified a regulation in September 2022 to create the amended fee framework.

The National Association of Payments Processors (NAPP) evaluated the “adequate profitability” within the cryptocurrency retail and exchange sectors, resulting in a new fee structure affecting both businesses.

The new fee structure requires cryptocurrency exchanges to pay a monthly fee of 740 basis reference value (BRV), which is equivalent to 251.6 million Uzbekistan som (UZS), which is the nation’s fiat currency.

This is a significant increase from the previous fee of 400 BRV, which was similar to UZS 136 million ($10,819) and represents a considerable increase.

We primarily use the BRV to compute a variety of financial transactions, including taxes, fees and fines. Coin sellers, conversely, are now subject to a significantly increased fee of 185 BRV, which amounts to a total of UZS62.9 million ($5,003).

In the past, the costs for cryptocurrency retailers were only 20 BRV, equivalent to around six million Zambian shillings ($540) every month. The revisions aim to significantly enhance the state’s earnings from the cryptocurrency industry, according to NAPP.

The organization anticipates a twofold increase in revenue from this sector once the new structure is in place. The NAPP provided a further guarantee that the revised pricing structure would not hurt the financial stability of industrial service providers.

On June 20th, three months after its official publication, the new structure will come into effect. The recent directive comes only briefly after the National Asset Management Program (NAPP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the stablecoin issuer Tether.

As part of this agreement, Tether will investigate, promote, and advance blockchain-based innovations in Uzbekistan. These innovations will include stablecoins and the tokenization of digital assets, among others.

The public has not yet received details of the cooperation. Tether, on the other hand, has revealed that it intends to work along with the authorities in Uzbekistan to create a legal and regulatory framework for crypto assets in the nation.

In response to this development, the NAPP has decided to file a lawsuit against Binance, which it announced a month ago. The agency alleges that Binance does not possess a license and has not paid a fine for its operations.

Uzbekistan only permits approved exchanges, and mandates the housing of trading servers within its borders. The Uzbek government has restricted the provision of cryptocurrency services to licensed cryptocurrency enterprises since 2023.

Local cryptocurrency companies received the initial licenses in November 2022. Uzbekistan had previously prohibited access to several prominent international cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, FTX, and Huobi, because they were engaging in activities not authorized by the government.