Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview that reports of a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies were an excessive move. She said, “Govt. wants to ensure there’s a window for experiments in cryptocurrency space.”
After much speculation about whether India will ban crypto, the government finally gave a major hint. They say that they will not go for a blanket ban. The Indian cryptocurrency users seem to have found hope. In a recent interview, Sitharaman noted that they were already doing negotiations and discussions with the central bank of India (RBI) to regulate cryptocurrency.
She further said on India’s business channel, CNBC-TV18, the government’s position on crypto will be “calibrated” and wants to make sure there’s “a window available for all types of experiments in the crypto world.”
The cryptocurrency bill didn’t say much, except that it seeks to ban all “private cryptocurrencies,” save for certain unnamed exceptions (“to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses”) and introduce a framework for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). That fuelled much anxiety in the Indian crypto industry. Blockchain technology is the only one to get an exception in the draft bill.
After the draft bill’s announcement, leading industry leaders coordinated to fight against a total ban on cryptocurrency instead of a regulatory approach. Sitharaman’s statement was a relief for them.
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Finally, the Indian government realized that corporations like PayPal, Tesla, and top-tier banks are adopting Bitcoin. Crypto adoption is global. The latest announcement will calm India crypto’s regulatory FUD.
The hypothetical ban drew widespread criticism from across the crypto community. People are comparing it to an attempt to ban the Internet in 1990. But the comments from Sitharaman are a relief for crypto businesses, users, and holders in the world’s second-most populous country.
