The last few weeks have been very eventful for the Indian cryptocurrency landscape. However, the latest news coming in is not very encouraging. According to reports, the Indian government issued a statement saying that it would impose a ban on ‘private cryptocurrencies’. Without any further elucidation of the term, it has become a source of fear and anxiety among the country’s investors.
Naimish Sanghvi, the founder of Coin Crunch India, believes that the term’ private cryptocurrencies’ could include all cryptocurrencies in existence. It stems from the fact that earlier legal documents from the government tell that any non-sovereign cryptocurrency is a private cryptocurrency. That would include all tokens that are not issued by the government. Since the Indian government does not have a cryptocurrency, it could well mean that cryptocurrency will be banned in the country altogether.
Another argument coming up is that the term ‘ private cryptocurrencies’ would only include privacy-focused tokens like Monero and Zcash. A ban on these would be more effective in lowering crypto-related crimes, which have become prevalent everywhere, including India. However, Rohit Kundliwal from the leading cryptocurrency exchange WazirX believes there is nothing to fear yet. To support his argument, he cited the previous statements by the Indian Prime Minister and Finance Minister saying that there would be no ban on cryptocurrency in India. How things play out will have a huge impact on global cryptocurrency prices, and it is already showing in the 14.8% drop in Bitcoin price.
