Why India Will Criminalise Possession And Trade In Crypto Currencies

Last updated on March 25th, 2021 at 09:23 am

The centre plans to put a ban in place that proposes to stop use of crypto currencies for trade in India. It will extend this ban even to those entities that will hold such crypto currencies even as assets. 

This has been confirmed by a senior government official, that such a bill is in the pipeline and would be seen as one of the world’s strictest policies against cryptocurrencies. 

According to confirmed information, the bill would criminalize possession, issuance, mining, trading and transferring of crypto-assets in India. In January, the centre had decided to make a move against use of any private virtual currencies such as bitcoin but moving towards an official digital currency. 

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This is going to hit miners and traders in a big way, who were banking of trading on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. However, the government does plan to give crypto holders some six months before they can liquidate their assets and holdings. There is enough confidence amongst the government officials that the bill will be converted to a law by the current government.

If made into a law, India would be the second-largest economy after China to have criminalized the use of the currency. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, hit a record high of $60,000 on Saturday, nearly doubling in value this year as its acceptance for payments has increased with support from such high-profile backers as Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Unofficial data states that currently, Indian investors hold 100 billion rupees ($1.4 billion) in crypto-investments and despite news doing rounds over the ban,  transaction volumes are swelling with 8 million investors estimated to be active. 

Apparently, the government is  said to have plans to ban private crypto-assets while promoting blockchain — a secure database technology that is the backbone for virtual currencies but also a system that experts say could revolutionize international transactions.