India Set to Ban Cryptocurrency
Feb 12, 2021
The 2021 Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill has two purposes
- Facilitate the creation of a new digital cryptocurrency that would be controlled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI, India's central bank)
- Ban all private cryptocurrency transactions that are not issued by the RBI
Back in March 2020, the Supreme Court of India had previously overturned the RBI's 2018 circular to ban all cryptocurrencies. However, the introduction of this new bill would threaten the cryptocurrency industry yet again in India. Parliament will conclude with the bill's introduction on April 8 for feedback and revisions.
As stated by a senior Finance Ministry official, the bill was modeled after China's laws. China is also building its own digital yuan. However, only crypto-to-fiat trading and ICOs are banned in China while crypto-to-crypto trading is still legal. China recognizes bitcoin as a commodity rather than as a legal tender.
