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Amidst expectations of a possible Bill in Parliament to prohibit trading in cryptocurrency, players in the sector are hoping that the government will consider regulation, and not a full-scale ban on trading.
“The draft crypto Bill is very crude and an early draft version to be presented to Parliament. As an industry, we’ve been working towards positive regulation and we’re confident that our government will look towards regulating crypto in India like the rest of the world,” said Nischal Shetty, CEO and Founder of domestic cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX.
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Singapore example
Probir Roy Chowdhury, Partner, J Sagar Associates, also termed it as a retrograde step.
“The need of the hour is regulation, not prohibition. We should take guidance from our neighbouring country, Singapore, which has regulated and allowed cryptocurrency trade. With regulatory oversight and guidance, it may be a boon for the fledgling Indian economy to allow cryptocurrency trade and consequently investments in India,” he said.
Since the Supreme Court judgement lifted the ban by Reserve Bank of India on trading in cryptocurrency in March this year, the sector has seen robust growth with a lot of retail participation and investments by different players.
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Code of conduct
A large number of players have also entered the sector though many had been concerned about the lack of regulation.
The government is now looking at introducing a new Bill in the current session of Parliament to ban trading in cryptocurrencies.
The Reserve Bank of India had in 2018 banned transactions relating to cryptocurrencies. “Virtual currencies and crypto currencies are not legal tender,” has been an oft repeated caution by the Finance Ministry and RBI.
In an earlier interaction with BusinessLine , Shetty had said the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is working on a code of conduct for cryptocurrencies with regulatory pointers and guidelines on issues such as KYC to address concerns on money laundering and illegal activity.
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