Report contents
Europe · Developing
Ukraine
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 58 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +4 |
| Inflation 10.9% · unbanked 12% · remittances 6.3% GDP · capital controls 1 · sanctions 0.25 | CNI 0.369 |
| Need multiplier | ×1.053 |
| Livability score | 0.727 |
Raw 58/84 = 0.690 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.37, from five components: inflation 10.9% (three-year average 2023 to 2025), unbanked 12% of adults, remittances 6.3% of GDP, capital-control intensity 1.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0.25. Need multiplier ×1.05. Livability score 0.727, rank #3 of 79.
Three findings
Crypto is a wartime financial lifeline, and the corridor score proves it
Ukraine is the cleanest "significant utility" remittance case in the index, scoring 3 on a corridor where most of Europe scores 0. With banking infrastructure disrupted, stablecoins run alongside SWIFT for cross-border household support: roughly 6.9 billion dollars in stablecoin flows, the highest stablecoin-to-GDP ratio of any country measured. Ukraine carries a full peer-to-peer (person-to-person trading) liquidity bonus of 4 of 4 and ranks #1 in Eastern Europe for crypto ownership per capita, with 6.5 million owners.
Supermarkets take Bitcoin even as the eastern stores close
VARUS runs crypto payments across more than 100 supermarkets via Binance Pay, and Whitepay extends acceptance to electronics chains Foxtrot, Tehnoezh and Stylus across 130-plus currencies. Even discounting roughly 15% of the network lost to closures in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the merchant footprint clears the top band, a resilience the auditor ties directly to the war economy.
The need side lifts Ukraine 28 places, into the global top three
Ukraine scores 58 of 84 in raw capability, mid-table, but a Crypto-Necessity Index of 0.37 from 10.9% inflation, 12% unbanked, remittances at 6.3% of GDP, full capital-control intensity and sanctions exposure. The ×1.05 need multiplier carries it from rails #31 to livability #3, behind only Argentina and El Salvador. This is the index working as designed: capability that matters because the country genuinely depends on it.
In one line
"In Ukraine crypto is not a portfolio choice. It is the rail that moves a family's support across a border when the bank cannot, and the index ranks it third in the world for exactly that reason."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 3/4, trending liberalising. Bill 10225-d, introduced 24 April 2025 to mirror MiCA (the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation) definitions, passed its first reading but was not in force at the cutoff, leaving crypto tolerated rather than statutorily regulated. The NSSMC (the securities regulator) is driving VASP (virtual asset service provider) licensing, the Ministry of Digital Transformation's 2025 to 2026 plan prioritises legalisation, and a Bitcoin-reserve strategy was under discussion.