Exchange Warning for Ukrainians: Difficulties When Exchanging 100 Dollars

According to the National Bank of Ukraine, published in February 2025, 93% of seized counterfeit foreign currency banknotes are fake US dollars. From this same statistic, it follows that most of the counterfeit banknotes (90%) are 100 dollar bills.

In the summer of 2025, the official exchange rate of the NBU is 41.82 hryvnias. At the same time, banks have an average buying rate of 41.50 UAH and a selling rate of 42.05 UAH. Experts predict that by the end of 2025, the dollar rate may reach 44 hryvnias.

One of the new schemes of exchange points is the requirement to insert the banknote absolutely straight, otherwise the machine does not read it and returns it back. This becomes a reason for refusing the exchange. The National Bank of Ukraine has already taken decisive measures to combat these schemes by banning currency exchanges if the counter or detector at the cash register confirms the authenticity of the banknotes. As a result, the number of citizen complaints has decreased at least fivefold.

In February 2025, the National Bank of Ukraine announced an increase in the number of counterfeit dollars in circulation and the identification of new exchange schemes. According to official statistics, most fake banknotes are 100 dollar bills, and there is also a trend of increasing the dollar rate of the National Bank. The National Bank of Ukraine is taking measures to prevent fraud in exchange points by improving the system for detecting counterfeit banknotes.