The Indian parliamentary session will resume by November 29 and discuss 27 bills, including the “cryptocurrency and regulation of official digital currency bill,” which would include details of how the Indian crypto industry will be regulated.
Some Details About The Regulatory Proposal
The bill includes how India’s apex bank (the RBI) will run its national digital currency. The RBI’s national digital currency is already in the research phase. It’s also in discussion with nations that have already launched their national digital currencies, such as Singapore, to determine how they could leverage blockchain technology for that purpose.
But the RBI isn’t sure when it will launch the pilot version of its national digital currency. Recently, Narendra Modi (India’s PM) issued a statement detailing an overview of digital currencies and the kind of regulatory policies that should be implemented about them. Inside sources reveal that the PM also held discussions with stakeholders in the crypto industry on the best way forward in regulating the crypto industry.
Part of the discussion in the meeting also involved preventing the unregulated crypto market from being the launch-pad for fraudulent financial transactions. Another highlight of the gathering was how crypto-related adverts were misleading the populace.
Some of the stakeholders who participated in the meeting opined that improving the Indian economy doesn’t necessarily require banning crypto projects and technology. However, they suggested that the authorities develop a solid regulatory framework to protect investors, secure the industry, and eliminate money laundering or fraudulent financial transactions through it.
The Previous Discussion About Cryptocurrencies
On Monday, India’s PM delivered a keynote address during the Sydney Symposium, which involved security worries surrounding the crypto industry. He further stated that democratic countries must work hand-in-hand to regulate the crypto space instead of being run by “wrong” persons.
Several metrics show that Indians are among the largest investors and traders of the digital asset market globally. Consequently, the RBI has suggested that it will proffer reasons why private digital assets need to be banned altogether.
Massive Crypto Sell-Offs Witnessed On Indian Crypto Exchanges
After the reports of a potential ban on crypto by Indian authorities, Indian crypto exchanges (especially CoinDCX and WazirX) saw massive crypto sell-offs. WazirX even had a temporary site/app crash following incessant sell requests on its platform. However, the exchange’s site and the app are now back to normalcy. Also, crypto prices dipped by 25% in India’s INR in comparison to market prices globally.
BTC price dipped by 17% on WazirX even though it surged 2% on other exchanges outside India over the past 24 hours. Likewise, ETH price declined by 11% on WazirX and other India-based crypto exchanges even though it surged by 5.5% globally. If the Indian Parliamentary were to pass the crypto regulation bill, other South Asian countries would likely do the same.
Indians rank number one among south Asian citizens trading the crypto market. Many Indian crypto enthusiasts have concluded that Indian authorities would ban crypto since it has always been skeptical of the industry.