It seems like Bitcoin and any other?cryptocurrency isn¡¯t going to have a promising future in India as the Indian government is soon going to propose a new law that will be banning cryptocurrencies as well as fining people who continue to trade in them or even hold them, in the country.?
This was revealed by a senior official in a conversation with Reuters. The aforementioned bill will be regarded as one of the world¡¯s strictest policies against cryptocurrencies that will end up criminalising the possession, issuing, mining and trading as well as transferring of cryptocurrency assets.
This report follows the agenda from January by the government of India that had then called for the banning of private virtual currencies and at the same time created a framework for an official digital currency in India.?
The bill would offer the holders of cryptocurrencies up to six months to get rid of their digital assets, post which the government would levy heavy penalties. If this does get formulated into a law, India would become the first nation in the world to make possessing cryptocurrency illegal. Even China has banned the trading and mining of cryptocurrency, but it doesn¡¯t penalise people who possess it.?
This comes at a time when cryptocurrency Bitcoin is achieving new heights with a valuation of over $60,000 -- doubling its value in just a few months this year.? Despite the hammer of bans looming on top of investors, they still manage to make record-breaking transactions in India, with over 8 million investors holding 100 billion rupees in crypto-investments.?
Despite worries of a ban, user registrations at local crypto-exchange Bitbns are up 30 fold from a year ago, according to Bitbns CEO Gaurav Dahake. Unocoin, one of India¡¯s oldest exchanges, revealed that it added over 20,000 new users amidst these fears.?
Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman this month in a conversation CNBC TV-18 revealed that even though they¡¯re working on passing a law against cryptocurrency, they¡¯re not completely shutting down the idea, ¡°I can only give you this clue that we are not closing our minds, we are looking at ways in which experiments can happen in the digital world and cryptocurrency. There will be a very calibrated position taken.¡±
The senior official in a conversation with Reuters stated, however, that while banning private cryptocurrency assets, the government also wants to promote blockchain technology.?