The Indian cryptocurrency users seem to have found hope at the end of the tunnel when Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about taking a “calibrated” approach with regards to crypto trading in the country. In a recent interview, Sitharaman noted that they were already carrying out “negotiations and discussions” with the central bank of India to regulate the cryptocurrency.
During her interview, the finance minister stated that they will keep “a window available for all types of experiments in the crypto world,” while only a few weeks ago a report rattled the community with the mention of a ban. The crypto bill also included the possible development of a central bank digital currency and mentions restrictions on private cryptocurrencies. However, with Sitharaman’s current statement, the status of crypto seems to check the ‘it’s complicated’ box.
The Finance minister noted:
“Obviously, RBI will be taking a call on what kind of official currency, cryptocurrency will have to be planned and how it has to be regulated.”
The crypto businesses and users within India have urged the regulators to reconsider their stance on crypto. With her current statement, the crypto circle must be breathing a sigh of relief as this is still better than an outright ban.
According to the CEO of crypto exchange CoinDCX, Sumit Gupta,
“The FM’s stance on ‘considering a calibrated approach’ is an encouraging sign. We are a 100-plus staff company with some of the best talents from premier institutes like IIT.”
The crypto-boom has been exponential after the COVID-19 outbreak and India has been witnessing a rise in its trading volume since March 2020. The Indian crypto exchange, WazirX hit $2.4 billion in trading volume in February, which was twice of what it saw in January. At the time of writing, the 24-hour trading volume on WazirX was over $41 million.
