Ukraine’s deputy prime minister wants to be the first user of a planned new central bank digital currency (CBDC) and take his salary in e-hryvnia, he told reporters at the World Economic Forum.

New laws will make the country the world’s leading jurisdiction for crypto assets, said Mykhailo Fedorov, who is also Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, after Ukraine successfully used crypto to raise money for its armed forces.

Ukraine is one of a number of countries around the world considering whether to issue fiat money in digital form, with draft legislation on a digital euro due from the neighboring European Union later this year.

In Ukraine, virtual assets legislation signed into law last year, just weeks after the country’s invasion by Russia, will be supplemented by a new tax law for crypto, and by a CBDC law due next year from the National Bank of Ukraine, Fedorov said.