New Bill Introduced in India That Would Regulate, Not Ban, Crypto

It looks like the Union Cabinet of India is ready to take on a bill that will potentially regulate cryptocurrency in the country.

The Crypto Fight in India Continues

The news came by way of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who explained on Monday morning:

Cabinet note is ready on cryptocurrency bill. I am awaiting cabinet to clear that.

The fight between India and cryptocurrency has been going on for several years. Things ultimately began in 2018 when the country decided that it was going to bar all crypto and blockchain businesses from getting access to standard services and tools offered by financial institutions. In other words, they could not have banking accounts or anything else that a “normal” company could have access to. Thus, while crypto itself was not banned, like so many journalistic platforms were reporting, these businesses were certainly being given a hard time.

Two years later, the Supreme Court of India ruled that this measure was unconstitutional, and thus the ban was reversed. It wasn’t long before cryptocurrency activity in India went through the roof. Many felt the Asian country would potentially become the newest crypto haven and that everyone in the country would begin going crypto crazy, and things went that way for a little while…

However, over the past year, many sources claimed that India was potentially looking into banning cryptocurrency activity altogether. It was not happy with simply banning crypto companies from getting the tools and services they needed to stay in business. Rather, nobody could trade, nobody could own an online wallet, nobody could engage in any sort of crypto-based activity whatsoever, and anybody who did would be straddled with financial penalties and possible prison time.

Many individuals, from traders themselves to analysts to financial heads in the crypto space scoffed at this idea. They believed that cryptocurrency was the way of the future, and any country to ignore this fact would potentially be left behind. This included India, and there were several arguments that the nation was potentially making a big mistake in disallowing cryptocurrencies altogether.

Some Doors Will Be Open

But then things began to change again, and it looked like the country was suddenly open to the regulation of crypto rather than a full-on ban. The idea is that people could engage in the benefits and pleasures of cryptocurrency granted they occurred in a safe and controlled environment. Now, it looks like the country may indeed be moving in that direction given that a bill has been prepared that would allow India to implement specific rules and regulations regarding the actions of crypto trading.

In the past, Sitharaman himself claimed that India was not looking to shutter all the crypto doors within India’s borders, and that pathways would be granted allowing companies and individuals alike to both work and play in the crypto space.

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