On February first the Government of India unveiled its budget for 2021, cryptocurrency investors breathed a sigh of relief as the matters related to the use of cryptocurrency in India were ignored during the budget speech.
There were pre-budget rumors that the Indian Government was planning to ban private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin from circulating in the Indian Financial System. The rumor followed that the Union Budget of 2021 planned on introducing a bill to put a blanket ban on trading and use of Bitcoin and all other “Private” cryptocurrencies. Even back in 2018, the Government of India had prohibited cryptocurrency trading for almost two years, until the ban was overturned by the Indian Supreme Court in March of 2020. While governments all over the world are seeking ways to regulate cryptocurrency, none have taken measures to put a blanket ban on owning them.
For Indian Cryptocurrency Investors the news was worrisome. Nischal Shetty, the CEO of WazirX had rhetorically responded to the news saying “there are over 7 million crypto holders in India. Over $1 Billion crypto assets are owned by Indians. Would Government ban and erase all this wealth overnight?”
While involving cryptocurrency ecosystem players and investors in the decision-making process about crypto currency was a point of issue for some, others wanted to pick a bone with the Government on how they had classified crypto currencies. The bill allegedly sought on banning “private” crypto currency. However, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are deemed to be public due to their decentralized nature. CEO of CoinDCX Sumit Gupta has tweeted, “…There has been no clear communication, on public and private classification even today in the bill. It must be explicitly covered.”
For the time being the Government has neither issued a bill to ban cryptocurrency, nor it plans on introducing Government-owned Cryptocurrency. And the lives of cryptocurrency investors continue in this legal limbo.
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