India Is Seeeking To Ban Private Cryptocurrencies

According to several press reports, India is seeking to ban all private cryptocurrencies by considering a government-introduced bill. Coindesk highlighted that “According to the Lok Sabha Bulletin published Friday, the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, seeks to prohibit all cryptocurrencies in India“.

However, Bloomberg also highlighted that “the proposed law will provide a framework for the creation of an official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India and allow certain exceptions to promote blockchain“.

If the bill is approved, India would become the only major Asian economy to ban private cryptocurrencies. As a reminder, in April 2018, RBI regulator tried to ban crypto transactions but exchanges launched lawsuit in the Supreme Court in September and finally won respite in March 2020. A three-judge bench, consisting of Justices Rohinton Nariman, Aniruddha Bose, and V Ramasubramanian, said the RBI order was “unconstitutional”, creating a vacuum in the regulation of cryptocurrency in India.

Livement also noted that “an earlier government bill on cryptocurrency in 2019 reportedly sought to ban cryptocurrency and criminalise its possession in India. However it was not introduced in Parliament.”

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