Topic: Looks like India is perhaps serious about banning cryptocurrency (Read 580 times)

I am not from India, but being a frequent visitor to that country, I can say that demonetization didn't brought any positives to the economy. The main objective was to reveal unaccounted funds being held by tax evaders. In this regard, the exercise was a massive failure. Because the government itself admitted that more than 99% of the demonetized banknotes were successfully exchanged by those who held them (either directly, or using proxies). The ban on cryptocurrency, if implemented will be just another blunder.

The problem with the current union government is that they are trying to implement their own rules rather than following the legislation. If you look at their past performance you can clearly say that they have no idea about economics, if not we will not see blunders like demonetization and the way GST was implemented says a lot about their vision.

Life and death matter  . It is just passive and there are other options even if an extreme step is taken by the government.

Originally they were planning to introduce the bill during the budget session (8th March-8th April 2021), but now it looks as if they postponed it to the Monsoon session. But the intent is still there. Every now and then, the finance minister is issuing hostile statements against cryptocurrency and the RBI is also not behind in this regard. As of now, it is more like a temporary reprieve. We are hoping for a change of heart from the government, but it may be unrealistic to expect that.

I am not from India but i heard that they were supposed to bring the crypto currency bill in the Indian parliament budget but they did not do so. This means that this matter is delayed for next few months. Is it so ?  If this is true then it is good for the Indians citizens and also for the bitcoin community.

The government has already taken steps to block IPs of major international cryptocurrency exchanges. Obviously those who used them will continue to do so, with the help of VPNs. Localbitcoins used to be very popular in India, until they came up with very stringent KYC requirements. Now they have lost the top slot, and replaced by other P2P platforms or personal one to one trading. And regarding XMR, ZEC.etc, they are not very popular in India and therefore the traders may face issues related to liquidity.

If there is a total ban this means that they are going to remove the internet service and I do not think that is viable for India, the fact that they ban Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies does not mean that they can break those bans, perhaps with VPN, and other tools not possible?

I do not know if Localbitcoins.com or another Exchange is established in India that can make the handling of cryptocurrencies possible, but there are other solutions, there are groups where they exchange some cryptocurrencies and they do it through local currency, with an intermediary and they are options that can establish in India. Now with these restrictions by the government, does the government manage or monitor those who exchange through the network? They have NOT tested with coins that are privacy and give some anonymity? Like Monero, Zcash, any of those? I think the crux of all this is that they can never give their data, so the government doesn't follow up on them.

There is an interesting piece of news coming from Coinbase:

https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-announces-new-presence-in-india-even-as-potential-ban-on-crypto-looms

Coinbase has announced that it will open a branch in India (in the city of Hyderabad), despite the looming threat of a potential ban. Their decision is not surprising, because India is one of the top-most IT destinations. There are large number of qualified IT engineers and the operations are more affordable when compared to other countries. Meanwhile there is a very vocal #IndiaWantsBitcoin campaign ongoing in Twitter, but the politicians have so far ignored it.

So sorry for that sad news and sad situation you are been with mate. As some of us also, are being worried with your livelihood as well because i do rely here in cryptocurrency to survive the needs of our family since pandemic. I bet, no one meant to laugh with the current situation that your country looks serious about banning cryptocurrency. But we do also respect laws that you're country have, we do only hope that this might not be too harsh on the side of crypto user.

I am an Indian resident and many of the users who have commented here also come from India. We are worried since our livelihood is under threat. Almost one-third of my monthly income comes in the form of cryptocurrency and if that is taken away then I will be in a very bad financial state. And there are millions like me in India who earn passive income in the form of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. For us, this is no laughing matter. It is a matter of life and death.

Until when we will stop tackle the same issue as India banning bitcoin , India banning Cryptocurrencies , India has a New law against Crypto.

Aren't we getting tired of the same issue that i have been seeing since my first day here?

India is like other government that has their own rules and know how to handle their economy , the sad part here is that most of those who posts don't even come from india but acting as if they are affected of the issue 

Indian market share is not that big to cause any bug price fall. Last time too when ban news was out, BTC was booming. Even Indians were busy buying more BTC.
See Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell News has caused the recent fall in BTC price.

You can decide whether it is FUD or not, but the truth is that the bill is already uploaded to the parliament website. It was supposed to be tabled during the second phase of the budget session (March 8 to April , but now it looks like the finance minister may do that during the monsoon session of the parliament. The finance minister has also explicitly stated that she wants a ban on cryptocurrencies. So it is not just FUD, similar to what happened previously.

India will not be serious about baned bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they are a developing country, such rules are stupid rules, because the nature of cryptocurrencies is decentralized, so no one can regulate cryptocurrencies, I have friends in India , that the news is just fud to drop the price of bitcoin, so be careful if you want to take action from the news.

Politics is weird, you could have people who only live with crypto and need crypto more than ever, but if their political party that they vote end up banning it, they will find a way to support it anyway, it is a sickness that our world is like that. I do not know if the situation is like that in India as well, but I follow USA, UK, France, Italy and my own nation and in all of those nations people vote for the party that hurts them and still find a way to support it.

This is not a right or left wing deal, everyone is like that, all political parties and everyone who votes for any party. This is why I do not think that there will be a turmoil just for this, I think it would be just regulations, not a complete ban, but it will still be nothing if they banned it completely neither. I hope they do not, we need our Indian bros in the crypto world with us.

How come a 18 year old have any income as that is the age group that will be in universities and usually you pass your degree around 20 or 21 depending upon your course and then you need to find a job and you really know what is the salary package as a fresher and it will not be that high and $2000 to $4000 will be the annual salary. If you are talking about anyone above 25 years then they might have the savings if they are not having education loan. 

What I want to know is can they really do that? they are the second most populous country in the world (with a large number of crypto users of course). I think it will even cause a little social or economic turmoil if their governments cannot handle it with the right and proper method. it is better to look for alternatives to how India is able to use crypto for better than limiting it

I am from India and I would say that 20 million is somewhere close to the actual number. Nowadays almost every individual in the 18-35 age group I come across is a Bitcoin investor. It is like a craze now, with even those living in rural areas showing a lot of interest. These guys don't have much disposable income in their hand, and $100-$1,000 seems to be the average amount invested in BTC. And in India, it can be a big amount (especially for the youngsters). But that said, there is virtually zero interest from those who are aged 35 and above.

I dont care about wealth in each country, Bitcoin isnt about the past and how yes we know USA is richer.   Actually its about growth and usage, revenue would the easiest way to state it.    

It does appear a bill to ban crypto is going ahead in India, I find that confusing as they have also said the opposite and recognise crypto is part of technology development.   Same old line about how the government wants to ban alternatives and just have people use a new digital currency they invented, pointless as most FIAT is already digital and forcing people to use your idea of a value system is the same thing with FIAT we already have so they are proposing nothing at all in effect.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1373947058978230272

Crypto use typically rises after being banned, silly but would not surprise me

You're digging your hole deeper and deeper.

So if you maintain that 4% in crypto but at the same time you keep the average rate of 1/30 of what an American can put in then what do we do about the overall numbers?
Because if we have just 7 million Americans, keeping the same ratio of population,  it means they will hold almost half of the coins. And we have also 400millions people in Europe from which we could also draw about 10 million at least with a buying power of at least 10x, so...there won't e any coins left of the entire rest of the world which also included a lot of really wealthy countries.

But let's go back to the volume, you claimed the volume backs your numbers.
8 million KYC users on Indian exchanges, $63m on the top exchange, what's that, 8$ in volume a day per user?
Common, let's be real. That 20 million number is pure advertising by exchange owners.

This is exactly where you get it all wrong. You assume that the capital available per head is same for users in India and the United States. For an average Indian, the annual salary is in the range of $1,500-2,000, while the same for someone in the United States can be $45,000-$60,000. That means that the average investment from Indian users may be 1/30, or at the most 1/20 of the amount that the American user invest. In terms of number of users, India is one of the top most countries. But still Indian users hold only 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap.

They're not banning anonymous, please read carefully. And it is possible to ban crypto as China and India have done, by making it illegal for businesses to conduct or transact in crypto related activities. The ban usually leads people to go underground and just trade p2p instead but if they get caught like in US, you can get fined or even jail time.

Art the threats from countries that are seeking to ban bitcoin is with excuse that people use it for illegal dealings but this is not a reason good for talking negative about a digital asset , fiat has been used for all that too. The whole of them will eventually look at regulation in their country home, banning of cryptocurrency will only take the countries out from global businesses and that will bring them backwards.

You are not getting the point. We all know banning crypto is not possible but if Government announce it's ban or ban it, we would like ourselves to get involved something which is illegal.

This banning of a thing is just a threat. How is it possible to ban an anonymous? The earlier Government at all cadres realize that this is the future currency, the better for them to strategize.

Passing law different than enforcing it. Maybe the law could be unsuccesful and the enforcement is low but they atleast have an excuse to punish whoever confronts their interest.
Whether the people in there could still use crypto sneakily definitely depends on the people themselves.

India is a country with exponential growth potential, its key though all the investment hype is with China and its great leap (a bad phrase in this context) into the footsteps of super powers just from its sheer size actually India deserves a similar consideration.   The problem is right now India has been held back by an anti capitalist sentiment and system of governance that goes back decades and its not as poised for growth as China has managed through its command economy forced growth.  Theres no doubt every country has flaws, China remains communist despite appearances or at least a military dictatorship so has flaws wider then the grand canyon without a doubt I do hope for that reason alone India gets off its ass and starts to pull its weight and more in the world and part of that is their attitude to fintech as they put it or crypto as we view it.    Stop hobbling on crutches and learn to run is my hope for their aspirations, I believe they are capable of changing everything in the next decades if they take up that mantle I dont want China to dominate Asia unopposed.
   On this news alone people are ready to write them off, it was never the governments choice to ban or not to ban its really about the people taking this forward or not.

That make sense which is indeed happening as of this moment and this isnt something new because those media would really be continuing on publishing out those things
which do really misleads out people on the actual or truth thing about crypto.
When it comes to banning then just let them be, sooner or later they would really be reverting those decisions if they do realize that they wont really able to get rid of it.
Government isnt really that dumb nor aware on how things do works.

I don't think it will happen in near future. Some media house deliberately publishing fake news and attributing it to reliable anonymous sources
Government will not out a blanket ban on crytpo as they know it is not possible to ban it.
They will come up with some face saving solution that's why they have postponed the bill till monsoon session.

They are issuing different statement each day and it seems like different officials are carrying their own individual boats and nothing is clear at all.The bill is is final stages but still has not been presented in the current session of parliament.But Indian government would not go with terrible decsions of banning usage of all forms of Cryptocurrencies which will have them suffer loss in return.So let's wait for the actual announcement and hope for best as India accounts for highest amount of crypto trading in Asia as demand of Bitcoin is at premium in India.

Looks like India was the first country that were going to declare for ban of cryptocurrency that u have known so far and this will definitely a big issue in case happen. As i do hope that it won't great affect the bitcoin market since bitcoin was now in great growth of market. So far we haven't heard a serious case that cryptocurrency was a threat to the economy of one nation and in fact some nation are considering crypto as a good investment.

How do I put this...
Exactly why I've been talking about it, exchanges claiming they have million of users.


Hmm, Wazirx is doing $76.691.478, Binance $72.358.046.448.
So, if in India there are 20 million users then worldwide there must be 20 billion users.
I have a feeling something is wrong with this one...

Your government isn't going to be the first one then. I have seen very few other countries that have banned bitcoin. I am just wondering, how are they going to ban it? It is almost impossible to do so. There is no way they can track each  and every citizen who are using bitcoin (unless banks are involved). So even if they do ban bitcoin, won't you guys be able to do P2P trading like the way bitcoin was supposed to be traded?

Indian exchanges do have very strict KYC requirements. 8 million users have undergone this KYC process in order to register to various Indian exchanges. If someone is undergoing this rigorous KYC process, then in all probability he is an active user IMO. And from what I have seen, due to the hostility from the authorities the majority of the users are not using exchanges. Rather than that, they trade using P2P platforms. As per my estimate, there are 4 users who use P2P platforms and global exchanges, for every user registered with the Indian exchanges. So my conservative estimate would be 20 million users in India.

There is always a chance of the exchange owners inflating the number of users, but the trade volume and ground reports support these claims. Before the pandemic, I was a regular visitor to India, and I have seen cryptocurrency users in the most remote corners of that country. And now, according to my friends cryptocurrency is much more popular when compared to the situation two years back.

There are many options for people who would like to still use crypto, considering how it would be impossible to track everyone's accounts and moves, I am sure that it will be quite difficult to make people come out and say that they still own bitcoin, they will try but they will fail. And that is only if they make it completely illegal, like even owning it would be illegal, in that case I am sure other methods will get more popular and problem will be solved.

The problem with not caring how much money India promotes is the fact that bitcoin was created so that we would be out of governments hands and do whatever we want without them ruining bitcoin, which they can't, only regulate it, but if we as whole bitcoin community act as if India doesn't matter, that would make us not really different from governments that only care about the rich and not for the poor and cause us to flee to bitcoin.

That's only possible ban of cryptocurrency, and I guess this stories was just a part of FUD attempts coming from giant holders who also lived in this country. If we have to think on the fairness of the situation, they won't allow their society to adopt it at first but how come this time when price rapidly increasing there's a banning speculations.
There's no confirmed truth on this idea, and I guess they're only trying to deceive small holders in order to be anxious over fake news.

India was a good and standard market for the goods and products. Same concept was worked for the bitcoin also. During corona, huge people in India was suffered for food. But I don't know, where such guys had a money to inverse in bitcoin at the market gap of 58-60k$.Still now bitcoin was a legal one from my knowledge. If the bill passed against this, their maybe fluctuations.

And why does the RBI/government think that banning crypto is going to work at all?

This has been tried and tested over a range of countries to no avail. I think that we can safely conclude at this point that it is simply impossible for a ban of a completely decentralised network to be enforceable.

Having the legislation on paper is one thing, and restricting actual access is another.

As you said, I wouldn't expect this to be much of a factor when it comes to BTC's price action both in the short and long run. People are used to this stuff happening, and BTC is designed to be a hedge against fiat anyhow.

Sucks for people in India honestly but as far as the price of bitcoin unless there was a world ban on it (lol) the price won't be as affected as it used to be when China kept banning and unbending bitcoin.  Its too widestretch now I think for one country to have a large effect.

I have no idea about the impact of India in the cryptocurrency space, i understand they have a huge population but that does not mean anything. If the government bans it will affect the investors and they need to find a solution to trade and P2P is an option which i know is popular when the exchanges were forced to shut down couple of years ago.

I think it is obvious that any nation that completely bans bitcoin would be shooting themselves in the foot, we are talking about a nation that has managed to overcome all digital problems that they faced and I can promise you that they will do that again, which is why if it is completely illegal, they would just switch to P2P type services and handle it, plus there are other nations now that allows you to start a bank account, at the very worst case people would open an account in that nation, get a card and they will be putting their crypto in exchange and withdraw to that bank and just use it in India as a foreign bank credit card, that's like the worst possible situation, even then there is solution.

This is why I think government will soon realize that they can't ban it, and regulations are not that horrible, as long as it is not harsh regulations I am fine with that, but it needs to make sense.

Common, just stop it, it's been 8 years, get over it.


Seems like nobody can keep up with whatever passes through their heads each morning.
At least China was playing this game once a year and there was easy to see what they were aiming for in the final stage, with India, this is more like gambling with tossing coins, on a boat, 70% of the time you won't be able to know the outcome at all.  


Define active users!
Because if we go by all the claims on how many people you have active in crypto in all countries you end u with more than all the transactions in all the chains that are active right now. 20 million? And before you quote any article, make sure this is not a PR claim by some CEO of an Indian exchange that only throw numbers around to promote his business.


That's already counted in the survey, remember it's 25 billion out of 380 billion in direct stimulus checks, only 5% of the first batch.

I was watching this yesterday. Free To Choose 1980 - Vol. 02 The Tyranny of Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWgNe8v6KFc  . In it it shows one crazyness India did after WW2. You should watch it and see for yourself.
It is totally possible that India and some other countries ban cryptocurrencies. By doing that they will just stay behind in development. Many smart Indian people will move abroad where crypto will not be banned.

The number i cited came from the latest article that I read where an Indian government official said the ban is likely to happen. I don't know how they came up with the $1.2 billion figure though.

Bryant.coleman's statement of 3-4% of the market cap seems like it's way too high. India has never been a major player in bitcoin, in fact crypto was even banned i believe for a little bit like last year before the supreme court ruled the ban unconstitutional, or maybe they ruled against it before the ban was put in place, not sure. But anyways, I doubt India's stake of bitcoin is anywhere near 3-4%. Googling the subject I just found an estimate from January that Indians likely own less than 1% of Bitcoin, 1% seems like a much more reasonable estimate than 3-4%.

If they own 1% of the market, and the India ban does happen, supposedly they'll have a 6 month grace period to get rid of their crypto. Given that we are in the main part of a bull run, it'd make sense for them to gradually sell as the price goes up and not just sell as soon as the ban is passed. Now, other markets might dump on the news, but I doubt an India ban would have a drastic effect on the market. US adoption is what is driving the market right now, India is barely an afterthought in the market. At most it might result in a short dip buying opportunity for people. Still, for the sake of the Indian people and their country in general, hopefully their politicians aren't stupid and corrupt enough to ban the people's access to an economic freedom tech like Bitcoin.

it seems like this will be a big issue in the world if India bans, the crypto community in India is very large but this seems to be the government banning crypto. So I think right now there must be a real solution for the Indian government in this regard, because clearly the crypto ban is likely to raise pros and cons in India.

It looks like the ban on cryptocurrencies is a real thing that could happen now even Reuters made an article with an interview on a Indian government official about how real the crypto ban will be, he said that even holding/possession of cryptocurrencies would be considered as a criminal act in the country. With the crypto ban having a high chance of happening in that country I will be worried about the short term effect it will lead in the crypto market, once the ban is issued I'm sure the government will given them time/duration to liquidate their cryptocurrencies this period can cause a sell-off in the market as well FUD as a bad news like this one which also has a direct affect in the market can be disastrous for the market.

I am feel sad for the crypto community in India to know that the Indian government is planning to ban cryptocurrency. Even though the crypto
community from India is quite a lot, I believe that Indian residents can still buy and sell cryptocurrency. As we all know that no single country
can control cryptocurrency,  as long as crypto users can still access the internet there is always a way to make crypto transactions. So in my opinion,
it's useless for the Indian government to ban cryptocurrencies, it's better if they support crypto.

I do not think that 25 billion would be coming from USA, sure there are a lot of people who are into bitcoin but not every single bitcoin owner will be buying bitcoin with their stimulus check, many of them are not making the same amount of money and many of them are doing horrible so they will use that money instead. I think 10 billion will be max we can get, and I believe even 1 billion will be more than enough for all of us.

Also about India, it is important to have Indian community with us, doesn't matter how much, there are nations that are much much smaller than India and even those nations should be kept, this is a worldwide currency and ignoring a whole nation would not be alright for us, it would hurt us all. I hope that we end up with promoting it everywhere and would be supported by governments and make a profit all together at the same time without exception.

Natural growth is far more important then a one off or what is the dilution of currency basically resulting in speculative flows.

I watched a video that said the opposite and assumed Bitcoin would be bullish from the weight of 1 billion people able to take part.  I'll post up the video so you can see but it seems without doubt they would allow crypto, its not like I think no use would occur anyway but its easier if its not officially illegal in a silly backwards way:

https://twitter.com/DocumentingBTC/status/1371247856821141507

Where are you getting those numbers?  That's a lot more than the $1.2 billion codebear cited.

It's a bad idea to ban cryptocurrency because crypto is the future technology and sooner or later everybody will know it. But if talk about a country, of course, they have their own rules, so people in India agree or not they have to stick to it. Some rules created because of the reason behind it, and of course there are a reason behind that banning

true, actually the problem is the bad government of India in handling the fraud that is rampant there...
as I have said over and over that we are in 2021 where those who buy Bitcoin have become very smart and don't worry anymore about countries that are likely to do the same thing with India because Bitcoin continues to be profitable.

$25 billion boost from the stimulus cheques is going to be huge. At the same time, it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cryptocurrency sector in India. There are 10-20 million active users there, and they hold around 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap (~$50 billion). Obviously the numbers are not as big as what they have in the US or EU, but $50 billion isn't a small figure either.

Every country has its respective regulations, so if India was serious about banning cryptocurrency it doesn't matter. The effect only will feel for people in India and maybe will dumped price for a bit. I'm happy that the government in my city is open-minded about crypto, so I'm not worried about something like that

$1.2 billion in Bitcoin in India vs. potentially ~$25 billion coming in from US stimmy checks... https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stimulus-checks-bitcoin-btc-stock-market-outlook-mizuho-says-2021-3-1030207913

This is not the first time they are doing it. Right from the case with personal computers in 1980s, to internet in 1990s, the Indian government has taken a regressive view on new innovations. When internet first became popular in the 1990s, the Indian government tried their best to hinder the growth in their jurisdiction by imposing all sort of restrictions and regulations. The issue is very simple and straightforward. Most of the Indian politicians (and this is especially true with the case of ruling party politicians), don't have the skills or intelligence to understand new innovations.

And in the end, this is what happens:


Have to agree with DeathAngel. This is exactly what is going to happen.

If they’re stupid enough to remove themselves from a financial revolution then let me suffer. Bitcoin doesn't care about India so good luck to them if they want to miss out.

This and the bans that follow will be looked at in a years time as the catalyst to the destruction of cryptocurrency. I've confirmed this with many math calculations in addition to confirmed sources of not fake news in India and other places.

I don't know, I'm very confused about the status of India about cryptocurrencies. The last time, I think there was another article that I've read that they're about to make their own crypto. Maybe that's just another rumor that I have believed and became comfortable that they would implement but it's the opposite that they're doing. If this is going to happen for real, they're the same as their neighboring country Bangladesh that have also banned it.

It doesn't surprise me. First of all, the Indian government (ever since 1947) has taken a stance that is against innovation. That is the reason why India, despite having the largest number of IT engineers don't have corporations such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Every year 100,000 or more of the most educated and skilled Indians renounce their citizenship and take the nationality of other countries (primarily the US and the UK).

And the current government is a mild version of the socialists regime in Venezuela. They have used the tactic of freebie distribution to win elections in an extremely efficient way. In order to distribute freebies, they need money. They are robbing the rich Indians (including the cryptocurrency users), so that they can give handouts to the slum dwellers and other poor people.

India always starts with making things forbidden before opening up...

These topics always pop up during bull runs...

Idc. 1 thing i know for sure is, when bitcoin dumped by weak hands, that's the best chance to buy it

Our Indian brothers are very active in the Cryptocurrency community, you cannot stop them especially now that the fruit of their efforts in waiting for the bull market has come, they will offer resistance to the government, regulation is better than prohibition it's a win-win between the two-party, they can implement taxation in exchange for letting them trade and create projects related to Cryptocurrency, they need to see that there is a market in Cryptocurrency.

I don't think that they are much concerned about the hard working Indian citizens. In their eyes, Bitcoiners are the ones who received a huge windfall as a result of the recent rally. Out of the total cryptocurrency market cap of $1.8 trillion, 3% to 4% is being held by Indian nationals. The government's plan is to impose income tax + GST + penalty, which will work out to 80% to 90% of the total amount, depending on the size of the holdings. Their plan is very simple. They will loot the 10-15 million cryptocurrency users, so that they could provide freebies to the 1.4 billion people. In India, most of the people are living in abject poverty, and they will sell their votes for as little as $50. Imagine how many votes the ruling party could purchase with all this money.

As Michael Saylor points out; in China they've banned Facebook and Google for over a decade. That didn't make these bad investments for the rest of the world.

If the Indian government really wants to do this it only points out how little they respect people and the right for people to own property or things.

Considering how little the Indian government clamps down on scammers (See the rise of endless scam baiters on YouTube who only ever seem to speak to Indian criminals), this is perhaps not surprising.

It is not going to help the average hard working Indian citizen at all.

We are hearing conflicting news regarding this every week and as @bryant.coleman mentioned there are many threads here discussing about it and one think i understood is that India is not a good country to invest as you will stay in the grey as you will not have any clarity regarding your business and as per the recent comment regarding the ban it is said that they are planning to give 6 months time to liquidate and they are criminalizing holding cryptocurrency which is crazy.

There are multiple threads in this forum dealing with this topic. You can visit them to keep updated about the subject.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/reserve-bank-of-india-most-confused-financial-entity-right-now-5316416
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/india-makes-ownership-of-bitcoin-criminal-offense-how-to-respond-5313666
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/india-to-regulate-bitcoingood-news-for-crypto-enthusiast-5322468
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/indian-finance-minister-on-cryptocoin-5322045

Originally they were planning to ban all forms of cryptocurrency and make the ownership of crypto a criminal offense. But then there was a massive social media campaign taken out by the exchanges and ordinary users. Still no confirmation is there, but it looks as if the government is shaken by the massive campaign. They are now talking about regulation, rather than prohibition.

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?