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Ukraine is the latest country to legalise bitcoin, as the cryptocurrency slowly goes global.

Ukraine is the fifth country in as many weeks to establish some ground rules for the cryptocurrency market, indicating that governments all around the world are recognising bitcoin's long-term viability.

The Ukrainian Parliament passed a bill legalising and regulating bitcoin with a nearly unanimous vote. The measure was introduced in 2020, and it now awaits President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's signature.

The legal status of cryptocurrencies in Ukraine has been ambiguous until now.

Locals were allowed to buy and trade virtual currencies, but law enforcement kept a watchful eye on enterprises and exchanges dealing in the digital currency.

According to the Kyiv Post, officials have taken a hostile approach to virtual currency, branding it a "scam," raiding crypto-related enterprises, and "sometimes confiscating pricey equipment without any justification."

For example, in August, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) shut down a network of “clandestine cryptocurrency exchanges” in Kyiv, the country's capital. The SBU alleged that these exchanges were used to facilitate money laundering and provide transaction anonymity.

In a first for Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada unicameral parliament, lawmakers have attempted to define key terms in the field of crypto, stipulating some protections against fraud for those who possess bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Virtual assets, digital wallets, and private keys will be incorporated in Ukrainian law if signed by the president.

Unlike El Salvador's decision to make bitcoin legal money, Ukraine's crypto law makes it difficult to implement bitcoin as a payment method and does not put it on an equal footing with the hryvnia, the country's currency.

The former nuclear power's move on Thursday, however, is part of a larger campaign by Kyiv to embrace bitcoin.

The country wants to open the cryptocurrency market to businesses and investors by 2022, according to the Kyiv Post. Top state officials have also been promoting their crypto credentials to Silicon Valley investors and venture capital funds.

Last month, Zelenskyy spoke of Ukraine's budding "legal innovative market for virtual assets" as a selling point for investment during an official state visit to the United States, and Mykhailo Fedorov, the country's Minister of Digital Transformation, said the country was modernising its payment market so that the National Bank could issue digital currency.

However, for bitcoin supporters like Jeremy Rubin, Ukraine's new law and political promises are meaningless.

“The increased legal position for bitcoin in Ukraine is a wonderful symbolic indication that we are progressing towards a future that universally respects individual rights,” stated Rubin, CEO of bitcoin R&D lab Judica. “However, it is merely symbolic - bitcoin asks neither permission nor forgiveness in its purpose to safeguard persecuted communities from unjust governments.”

Latest domino to fall

Ukraine has joined a lengthy list of countries that have incorporated bitcoin into their national legislation.

El Salvador became the first government to adopt bitcoin as legal cash and keep it on its balance sheet just this week. The outcome of this statewide bitcoin experiment will have a significant impact on President Nayib Bukele's political future.

Cuba, a notoriously conservative government still entrenched in conventional Marxist ways, enacted a law two weeks ago recognising and regulating cryptocurrency, claiming "socioeconomic interests."

The US suggested restrictions around crypto "brokers" in its $1 trillion infrastructure bill last month, while a new German law now permits funds that were previously prohibited from participating in crypto to devote up to 20% of their assets to virtual currencies like bitcoin.

The next deck appears to be Panama. A proposal of its own cryptocurrency law is being discussed in the Central American country.

This list is hardly comprehensive — it just appears to be the latest domino to fall as more governments acknowledge the long-term viability of cryptocurrencies  like bitcoin.