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Now Indian banks are making users sign a form swearing they won't purchase crypto

chepicap.com 23 January 2019 17:34, UTC

It is being reported by Bitcoin Exchange Guide that customers of Indian HDFC banks are reporting that they are being asked to explain any previous cryptocurrency related activity as well as sign a consent form stating that they will not purchase any cryptocurrency in the future.

Lot of people are confused.

Below is a consent form not warning letter issued by bank.

Account holder suspected of trading in crypto are being asked to visit branch & give explanation.

Also customer has to sign & give this consent letter agreeing - won’t deal in crypto. pic.twitter.com/7GV80lxME6
— CryptoIndia YT (@CryptooIndia) January 22, 2019

According to users on Twitter, banks are threatening that failure to comply could mean the closure of accounts including the confiscation of all funds. This leaves many with little choice but to comply.

Quoted from one of the forms:

"I/We authorize the bank to close the above account without any further notice if it is observed in future that transactions have been carried out for Bitcoin/ virtual currencies."

For users who who want to find a way around this, the article goes on to suggest using decentralized exchanges and other peer to peer methods, which are harder to detect by banks. WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty is quoted:

"Majority of the people understand not to enter such terms in the remarks. So simply avoiding entering anything related to crypto in the payment remarks is more than enough to avoid any problems from banks. There’s no other way for banks to know if a P2P transaction was done to transact in crypto."

Ultimately, this marks a step backward for crypto adoption in India, but hopefully cooler heads will prevail. In the meantime, stick with Chepicap for all updates!

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