Indian Government Continues to Subdue Cryptocurrency Market with Potential Ban on Using Crypto

India has kept an aggressive stance against cryptocurrency for quite some time, but it seems that they are not coming up short on ways to restrict consumers from using it. A new meeting for the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) showed that the government is working on the regulations that would prohibit cryptocurrency from being used within the confines of the country. The statement said that the company is working on creating “an appropriate legal framework to ban the use of private cryptocurrencies in India and encouraging the use of Distributed Ledger Technology, as announced in the Budget 2018-19.”

In the meeting notes, as posted by TheNextWeb, the statement of the FSDC is as follows:

“FSDC took note of the developments regarding strengthening of Cyber Security in Financial Sector including progress made towards setting up of a Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) under a Statutory Framework. The Council also deliberated on the need for identifying and securing critical information infrastructure in financial sector.”

Others involved in the FSDC meeting included.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) already put a ban against the ability for financial institutions to service crypto exchanges only a few months ago. However, that decision was ultimately challenged by citizens in the area with a petition that quickly grew to 22,000 signatures, pushing the case to the supreme court. However, the decision to ban cryptocurrency in India seems justified to a point, considering the high rate of crypto crime in the area. Bitconnect is just one of the many exchanges that stole from Indian citizens, with this specific case involving a $3 billion theft.

Ultimately, the ban remained unchanged by the time it was seen by the Supreme Court in July, giving a three-month notice for companies to close their digital doors. The local business seemed to thrive on peer-to-peer trading, but this kind of setup is not made with the intention of being a long-term option due to the lack of security in transferring high amounts of crypto. However, there does not seem to be any attempts to thwart the progress of distributed ledger technology.

So far, India is not the only one that has taken a restrictive path in cryptocurrency. China also has put a ban on the industry in their country, specifically against private crypto interactions, as they consider it to be an illegitimate form of currency. However, much like India’s current plan, China has also been incredibly supportive of blockchain technology and progress.

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