Last year was pretty dismal for the bitcoin and crypto industry in India. Regulatory procrastination and a negative outlook from politicians have stifled the ecosystem and innovation, will 2020 be any better?
BITCOIN BATTLING IN INDIA
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been relentless with its disapproval towards bitcoin and the crypto industry over the past couple of years. Bankers and politicians remained resolute in their stance on digital assets during 2019 as Supreme Court hearings got left on the back burner.
According to reports, Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, remained cautious on cryptocurrencies in her speech at the weekend. Her primary concern at the moment is one shared by many other nations – Facebook’s Libra.
She told reporters than many countries are cautions about rushing into this, and that the term ‘stable currency’ or stablecoin should not be used to describe it.
Last year, the social media giant kicked the digital hornets’ nest with its plans for financial domination through its own crypto coin. Central banks across the globe were worried, and rightly so.
Reports last month indicate that the RBI may be joining the growing crowd of central banks researching their own digital currencies (CBDCs), in response to the threat of Facebook domination. China is already leading this particular race.
In December, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das stated that the bank was ‘very clearly against any private digital currency’. Bitcoin, however, is the complete opposite, but it is unlikely that India’s central bank will change its stance on that anytime soon either.
RAY OF HOPE
There was a little light at the end of the 2019 tunnel when Binance acquired Indian bitcoin exchange WazirX, with plans to create a fiat onramp for the Rupee.
Company chief executive, Nischal Shetty, said that a CBDC would be of major benefit to Indians, and open the doors for further innovation in the crypto asset space. In an interview with bitcoin.com, he was asked about the RBI ban, Supreme Court hearing, and possibility of it being lifted;
I really hope they do. I think we’ll see some solid progress with the case in 2020 as the matter has reached a stage where it’s being heard in court.
As it stands, proceedings are set to resume sometime later this month when the hearing may finally take place.
Shetty stated that the government has taken its time over a cryptocurrency bill, as they want to understand the technology beforehand. He added,
We’re confident that our leaders will engage with the crypto industry of India and then progress in the right direction.
He continued to assert that the state will eventually turn pro-crypto but that may not happen for another year or two. India will wait and watch other progressive nations before making any regulatory moves in crypto.
For 2020, he predicted more competition among exchanges, lawmakers and politicians taking positive steps towards understanding the industry with a view towards a regulatory framework, and a massive growth in DeFi markets.
What will 2020 have in store for bitcoin in India? Add your thoughts below.
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The cryptocurrency ecosystem in India has recently been booming with increased adoption. About a third of the population of youth in the country own a digital currency, make money with it and convert their profit in Bitcoin to INR.
Unlike many other countries in Southeast Asia and the Asian subcontinent that opted to ban trading or even owning Bitcoin, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred regulated institutions such as banks from dealing in crypto assets.
The founder of Begin India Think Tank says that bitcoin should be regulated as stock, which he believes is the legal status the cryptocurrency should get in India. He also believes that Bitcoin may be the most secure technology in our lifetimes.
India’s crypto trade volumes have soared since the Supreme Court of India lifted banking restrictions for exchanges in March. According to Coin Dance's Paxful and LocalBitcoins volume data, India’s bitcoin peer-to-peer trade volume reached an all-time high in July.
India’s Supreme Court lifted the infamous bitcoin ban sometime in March this year. This ban had been imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), restricting banks from servicing crypto-related businesses in the country.
India crashed the price of bitcoin and that of ethereum in 2018, and twice, after the central bank there issued a diktat which has now been overruled by the Supreme...
The post Bitcoin Might Rise by $2,000, ETH by $200, as India is Welcomed Once More appeared first on Trustnodes.
India’s Supreme Court released the long-awaited ruling on the crypto ban imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in favor of the cryptocurrency industry. Yet, despite the optimism surrounding the decision, the Bitcoin price is showing no signs of an immediate upsurge.
After a stressful Supreme Court hearing, India conceded that bitcoin and crypto assets are not illegal. The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, also stated it did not place restrictions on Bitcoin (BTC) or other virtual currencies.
American venture capital investor, Tim Draper, has commented on India’s proposed bitcoin and crypto ban stating that it will set the nation back 40 years. Death Knell For Bitcoin and Crypto in India India has clearly taken a leaf out of China’s book with its draconian attitude towards crypto assets.
By CCN: The re-election of Narendra Modi as India’s prime minister is going to make bitcoin trading come with a premium in the country. It is partially due to a full-fledged trading market that went underground abruptly owing to a blanket ban announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
On March 30, less than 6 months since the shutdown of India’s largest bitcoin exchange Zebpay, one of the last remaining cryptocurrency exchanges in India, Coindelta, closed down its services. In an official statement, Shubham Yadav, the founder of Coindelta, wrote that there has not been enough progress in the process of overturning the decision of the Reserve Bank of India to prohibit local banks from dealing with bitcoin and crypto-related businesses.
Since July 2018, due to a circular released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April, local banks were prohibited from dealing with bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges by the central bank. Last month, the Supreme Court of India provided the government four weeks to draft a cryptocurrency regulatory framework, which would decide the legal landscape of the cryptocurrency market in India for the foreseeable future.
When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned its citizens about the risks of trading and holding cryptocurrencies in December 2013, it was a reformist move. Cryptocurrencies, or should we say bitcoin, was a new phenomenon back then.
Owning and using Bitcoin could soon become allowed in India, as the second interdisciplinary committee appointed to vote on the legality of cryptocurrencies is in favor of legalizing it, the New Indian Express reported on December 26, 2018.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to become the global leader in the infant cryptocurrency industry as its ICO regulations look to be finalized by mid-2019, reports The National, December 24, 2018. Capitalizing on Absence of Competitors While countries like the U.
The committee charged with providing recommendations for the regulatory framework surrounding cryptocurrencies in India is reportedly evaluating the legalization of the asset class under strong regulation.
Blockchain technology is primed to take over the automotive industry in the next three years. if senior executives in the sector are to be believed, reported Times of India on December 24, 2018. Blockchain to Augment Business Processes In a joint study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics, researchers concluded 64 percent of surveyed executives.
Indian cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx says it is seeing record trading volumes despite a number of conditions that dampen trader sentiment such as the crypto banking ban imposed by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency’s first killer application may be well on its way from the rosters of Facebook, a company ironically known for practices contrary to the ethos of decentralized currencies and blockchains, reported South China Morning Post on December 21, 2018.
The local authorities in Pune, India, recently confiscated 452 Bitcoins worth $1. 8 million from suspect involved in notorious cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. India’s Biggest Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme According to The Times of India, authorities of the cybercrime department in the city of Pune, India, recently recovered 452 Bitcoins (BTC) worth $1.
According to Bloomberg, Facebook’s is working on creating a new cryptocurrency with an initial focus on remittances in India. The new cryptocurrency will allow users to transfer money on WhatsApp, the popular messaging application owned by Facebook.
The Times of India reported on December 20, 2018, that the cyber crime branch of Pune police had seized 452 bitcoins worth $1. 8 million from one of the ten suspects involved in a cryptocurrency related Ponzi scheme case.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) heavyweights IBM is reportedly working with Indian telecommunications firms to help them create blockchain solutions aimed at enhancing “mobile number portability” and “Do Not Call” registries, according to an Economic Times report on December 12, 2018.
Zebpay, formerly one of India’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has launched in Europe. Euro deposits, withdrawals, and trading are now live in 21 countries. While the exchange is not accepting new registrations from India, existing users can continue to use its wallet app.
In this edition of The Daily, Coinbase customers in certain regions can now link their Paypal accounts to withdraw fiat and sell cryptocurrencies. Also, Russia’s third-largest bank is working to launch a digital asset management service in Switzerland, and Koinex, India’s leading crypto exchange, has set up a new development center in Bengaluru, the country’s […]
The post The Daily: Coinbase Adds Paypal Withdrawals, Gazprombank to Manage Crypto Assets appeared first on Bitcoin News.
In what will come as a temporary respite, the Indian Ministry of Finance has filed a long overdue counter affidavit to the petition filed by concerned citizens. On October 25, 2018, the Supreme Court of India had directed the counsel of the Union of India to file a counter affidavit about regulations on cryptocurrencies.
Koinex, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in India, could be venturing into the blockchain scene as soon as 2019, and is in the process of opening a new development center in Bengaluru, the company announced in a press release on December 4, 2018.
In today’s edition of The Daily, we cover cryptocurrency-related news from different parts of the world. Documents have revealed that an arm of the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) plans to investigate the technology behind Bitcoin, while a teenager in Israel has been convicted of making bomb threats in exchange for BTC.
India’s supreme court has set a new date to hear the petitions against the cryptocurrency banking ban by the country’s central bank. Meanwhile, the crypto community in India is campaigning on social media for “positive regulations” and the rollback of the banking ban.
As the price of Bitcoin continues to fall, many investors are doubling down and sticking with their decisions, which is a sign of a ‘problematic mindset’ that leads to more loss, Business Insider India reported on November 21, 2018.
An Indian minister has reportedly revealed that a state government is working to protect businesses operating without a regulatory framework in India. They include cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto-accepting merchants.
An Indian minister has reportedly revealed that a state government is working to protect businesses operating without a regulatory framework in India. They include cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto-accepting merchants.
A businessman from Chandigarh, India, has lost approximately $1. 4 million in a fraud masked as a potentially profitable bitcoin investment, reported The Times of India on November 22, 2018. During the police investigation, four people in total were arrested, one potentially being the key figure in the fraud and the other three his accomplices.
SWIFT India, a joint venture between the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT SCRL) and international and Indian Banks, recently partnered with MonetaGo, a fintech company, to trial distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Are you planning to do some shopping on Amazon this holiday season? If so, you can also support BitGive, the first registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that uses the power of bitcoin to support some great philanthropic projects around the world.
A market analysis revealing the number blockchain developers worldwide has placed India in second place to the United States, beating the UK, Canada, and France. According to the results published and procured by UK-based blockchain consulting firm Dappros, it is estimated that there are a total of 12,509 developers in India who work with Ethereum (2,381), Solidity (1,432), Blockchain (19,627).
Nischal Shetty, the CEO of Indian crypto exchange WazirX, has reached out to a top lawmaker to look into the regulation of Bitcoin and similar digital assets. The blockchain entrepreneur requested India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley to focus more on crypto’s potential benefits than its minimalistic misuses.
WIRESUMMIT 2018, an upcoming blockchain event for the broader Blockchain communities is around the corner. The exclusive gathering of investors and Blockchain startups is being organized in the capital city of India on December 2, 2018.
As you may have already heard, India is planning on banning cryptocurrencies. The Indian government does not love cryptos. Everyone who read the news when the government banned banks from having crypto exchanges as clients knows that their instance on the market is far from slightly good. At the moment, nobody is exactly sure how […]
Experts are saying the Indian Government’s perceived plan to ban Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies is an impossibility. Analysts are saying that by the very nature of digital currencies, implementing a blanket ban will be difficult.
Crypto scammers and hackers have no shame at all. They are so selfish and criminal that they do not even spare important services in order to make a quick buck. For instance, we have recently reported a new case of hackers using a ransomware on an East Coast water utility company to demand Bitcoin. The […]
The cryptocurrency market is going through a rough patch, but this isn’t stopping scammers from duping people out of their funds. Hackers took over the official Twitter account of India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to promote blatant Bitcoin giveaway scams – a trend that’s been plaguing social media for months now.
The British multinational banking organization HSBC and Belgium’s ING Bank have partnered to execute a trade transaction using the blockchain network from a U. S. -based Tricon Energy to India’s Reliance Industries.
A high school student has been charged by authorities in India for threatening to blow up the Miami airport. The eighteen year old boy was unhappy with the US investigation agency FBI for not helping him recover a sum of Bitcoin he lost to a US-based fraudster.
On a typical spring day in April, Indian cryptocurrency traders were conducting their business as usual when a snap announcement by the country’s central bank sent waves of panic across the country.
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.
Singapore High Court has accepted WazirX's reorganization plan, which will allow the exchang to repay 75% to 80% of the stolen customer monies. Despite the court's decision, many victims remain suspicious!
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has frozen $3 million in USDT as part of efforts to recover funds stolen during a $230 million hack in July 2024. The platform confirmed this progress in a Jan. 17 update on X, saying this move showcases its determination to safeguard user funds and rebuild trust after the breach.
WazirX token was one of the best performers on Dec. 3 as it formed a long God candle. WazirX (WRX) price jumped to a high of $0.3500, its highest level since March 14, and 255% above the lowest point this…
WazirX plans to restart trading alongside new features, a recovery token, and a decentralized exchange to make creditors whole. Speaking at the company’s fourth town hall session on YouTube, WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty disclosed plans to airdrop “recovery tokens” to…
The victims of the WazirX hack last July 2024 are now planning a class-action lawsuit. According to multiple sources, a group of victims is finalizing the plans to sue India’s largest crypto exchange to recover more than $600,000 in crypto assets.