Crypto Currency in India – What’s the latest?

Crypto currency has to be most talked about thing next to Covid therefore it is important that you keep an update on what’s happening globally as well as in India as far as the block chain based virtual currency goes.

In a recent development the government of India has introduced a crypto currency bill which will eventually lay down the method to the madness we currently are facing. Especially the younger investors who are lured by the number of advertisements/endorsements by celebrities, it is becoming difficult to not to get carried away with the current phenomena.

The Parliament will be debating and discuss regulations or ban on the crypto currency in the coming days. It is imperative that govt. keeps in mind the global regulations when they set up the regulation, as anything non-linear to the market expectation would result huge backlash and may even result in the country losing out the major business opportunities that the crypto provides. The start-up eco system is very high on the block chain technology and stringent regulation may result in these start-ups moving base to countries like Singapore.

Financial Action task Force (FATF) has last month issued updated rules and guidelines for crypto which are now called Virtual Assets and the exchanges where these are traded known as Virtual Asset Providers. The FATF has come up with standards which will help govern the VA’s and the VAP’s and the countries which they operate in. Also they made it clear that it is only the government that are the competent authorities to monitor the crypto.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill seeks to ban all but a few private cryptocurrencies to and to promote the technology like Ethereum being used to develop the currencies while also creating an environment for official digital currency created by RBI. The bill will create the framework that will help regulate the overall market including the RBI’s digital currency.

Globally China has put a complete ban on the crypto currencies and are preparing for a digitised Yuan. US on the other hand has been more welcoming and already created the licensing call Bit licence for the the exchanges.

It remains to be seen how the currency continues to gain acceptability globally and whether the investors continue to put their faith in them. Until everything is absolutely clear at least legally, this asset class maybe volatile for the Indian investors.