NBU Postponed Launch of e-Hryvnia due to High Project Costs

• Oleksiy Shaban said that the e-hryvnia pilot is expensive.
• In addition, the National Bank considers spending during the war unethical.
• Therefore, the launch of the Ukrainian CBDC in 2027 remains in doubt.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) doubts the possibility of introducing the digital hryvnia (e-hryvnia) in 2027. The reason is the high cost of the project, which, according to the regulator, is ethically questionable during the war. This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing a statement by NBU Deputy Governor Oleksiy Shaban during a speech at the Kyiv International Economic Forum 2025.

According to him, even the pilot phase of the launch of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) will require significant investment:

The NBU continues to develop the e-hryvnia, which is intended to become a digital form of the national currency and legal tender. The pilot project is expected to allow the currency to be tested not only within the NBU but also in real-world conditions — for payments, money transfers, public services, or social programs.

At the same time, Shaban stressed that it is unethical to spend large sums of money on research during the war:

The first experiment with the use of the e-hryvnia took place back in 2018, when the NBU issued e-hryvnias for internal use by the regulator’s employees.

Meanwhile, the draft concept of the e-hryvnia was presented to the public in November 2022. It is supposed to perform all the functions of money — to be available to citizens, businesses, government agencies, banks, and non-bank financial institutions, complementing cash and non-cash hryvnia.

The second pilot was planned to take place in 2024, but due to a change in priorities, the launch was postponed to 2025.

In March 2025, the NBU confirmed preparations for the CBDC pilot project and its testing. At the time, Shaban stressed that the regulator was preparing a platform that would not store users’ personal data, and that the information would be protected as a bank secret.