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Is India's FSDC Preparing to Completely Ban Cryptocurrencies?

Nov 1, 2018, 11:50AM
1 min, 34 sec READ

Recent statements by India´s financial regulators reveal the government may be preparing to completely ban cryptocurrency use in the country.

In what may represent the killing blow to India’s crypto community, a press release by India´s Ministry of Finance published after the 19th Meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), seems to indicate that the country´s administration may be preparing to completely ban the use of “private cryptocurrencies” and encourage the use of Blockchain technology.

The FSDC meeting, presided by the Union Minister of Finance Shri Arun Jaitley, was attended by numerous important personalities including Shri Ajay Tyagi, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India; Dr. Urjit R. Patel, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI); Shri Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India; Shri Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs; as well as other senior officers of the Government of India and Regulators from the Financial Sector.

The press release published by India´s Press Information Bureau (PIB) touched on various subjects addressed during the FSDC meeting, including a possible ban on cryptocurrency use,

The Council […] deliberated on the issues and challenges of Crypto Assets/Currency and was briefed about the deliberations in the High-level Committee chaired by the Secretary (Economic Affairs) to devise an appropriate legal framework to ban use of private crypto currencies in India and encouraging the use of Distributed Ledger Technology, as announced in the Budget 2018-19.

This news comes a mere few days after the Supreme Court of India directly asked the government to file an affidavit on the legality of crypto in the country within two weeks, after receiving numerous petitions filed by cryptocurrency exchanges and businesses, which consider the ongoing cryptocurrency ban upheld by the country’s financial regulator as unconstitutional.

 

 

Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.