ambcrypto.com
India has been making headlines recently after the world’s largest democracy announced the formation of a committee for pursuing the “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019.”
While the Indian crypto community raised several concerns, the dismissal of the community’s plea gave birth to an uncertain future for cryptocurrencies in India. This debate was initially sparked in the mid-2018 when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a statement directing all financial entities to “stop dealing with individuals and businesses dabbling in virtual currencies.” Subsequently, Zebpay, India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange was forced out of the country.
In a recent interaction with Mickey Media, Zebpay CEO Ajeet Khurana insisted that the ban was hyped by the media. He said,
“I have talked to all of the top stakeholders in the Ministry of Finance, the central bank, the securities regulator and despite them having a certain amount misgiving around crypto I have never heard them talk of banning it.”
Lending credibility to his comments, Khurana added that the people responsible for placing a ban on cryptocurrencies “have never said they will ban it.” In the interview, the popular Indian crypto influencer also conceded that pulling Zebpay operations out of India was “one of the worst decisions he’s ever been forced to make.”
Like Khurana, other players in India have also proposed their support for a cryptocurrency regime in the country. WazirX’s Nischal Shetty is one of them. Shetty was in the news recently after he shared the #IndiaWantsCrypto campaign on Twitter. Shetty had this to say about the status of cryptocurrencies in India,
“Other countries try to understand crypto but we have banking ban without research.”
While an official ban on cryptocurrencies has not yet been implemented, the Indian community continues to remain optimistic about the government’s final decision.