The government of India is planning to ban crypto as a payment method but is deciding to regulate it as an asset.
The Economic Times reported that government sources cite that the government plans to present a bill in the winter session of parliament that will regulate crypto. The Modi government aims to ban ads from crypto firms that may be “misleading” the general public.
The advertising issue raised a big debate that a lot of ads may aim to encourage more people to come into the crypto space. Still, the ads may lead to the youth thinking that the crypto is a magic pill that would double their capital and end up losing their money.
Listening to the chatter, crypto exchanges like WazirX and Bitbins have put a pause on their ads, ET reposts. The exchange put a stop to their ads in August.
Modi government sat down with the crypto industry representatives last Monday. They also held meetings with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that took place in the last few days.
Ratna Chattopadhyay, Manager at RBI; quoted that the challenging part faced by the RBI and the government is defining the asset class. Adding to this, she said that the preliminary discussions about regulating crypto as a commodity are not a good fit. Moreover, the financial stability of the country and exchange rate risk are also some alarming issues standing.
Authorities are also a bit concerned about how SEBI – Securities and Exchange Board of India – could keep tabs on multiple exchanges all in real-time. No final call has been taken yet; but a sandbox environment is in the works in India for the crypto space with SEBI as the regulator, the report added.
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