India to ban crypto, the investors will be given certain transition period says, Bloomberg
Some anonymous source who claimed to be a senior Indian Finance Ministry official insisted that crypto will be banned completely in India. Speaking to Bloomberg, the source claims that the ban will be under a new law that will be introduced in the parliament very soon. There will also be a ban on transacting cryptocurrencies through foreign exchanges.
As per the source, crypto investors will be given three-to-six months of a transition period to liquidate their holdings after the law will be passed. The official stated that the Indian lawmakers have targeted crypto assets due to their lack of backing from the RBI. In January, the Indian parliament introduced ‘The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’ for discussion during the country’s budget planning.
The purpose of the bill was to create a facilitative framework for a central bank digital currency issued by the RBI and to “prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India.” Sathvik Vishwanath who is the co-founder and CEO of major Indian crypto exchange Unocoin said Bloomberg that the local cryptocurrency industry are eagerly “waiting for details to come out to determine [their] next course of action:”
“If government goes ahead with banning all cryptocurrencies, except the one backed by the state, it will not make sense to continue our business in India. But we’ll have to wait and watch.”
In March 2020, India’s Supreme Court upended RBI’s April 2018 blanket ban on local banks that provide services to businesses using crypto. The Indian Ministry of Finance proposed legislation that will again ban cryptocurrencies in the country in June 2020.
