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.

“We are considering the digital hryvnia at the legislative level. This means that it is a legal tender and simply a digital form of the national currency, the hryvnia. When it will be introduced and whether it will be introduced is an open question,” Shaban said.

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

“The pilot is an expensive thing, the price tags are very high. We have now made a shortlist of suppliers with whom we would like to work when we are ready.”

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 cheques are very high, and the question is whether it is ethical to spend these funds only on research during the war. […] We are moving forward, but I cannot say that 2027 is the year of the introduction of the e-hryvnia.”

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.