India’s Crypto Industry Making Amazing Progress

India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, CoinSwitch Kuber, has disclosed that the country’s crypto ecosystem is currently in talks with regulators to help them understand the asset class.

Speaking in an interview today with Bloomberg TV, Ashish Singhal, co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch, noted that the industry has made “amazing progress” toward getting India’s government to understand crypto assets.

“Regulators are engaging with industry leaders like us and industry bodies and trying to understand cryptocurrencies — and we do understand the stance of the government,” Singhai said.

Controversy Surrounding India’s Crypto Space

In recent times, many have argued that the Indian government is bent on banning cryptocurrencies because they believe the asset class is mostly used to finance illegitimate activities.

However, Singhai believes that the current crypto ecosystem has some flaws of its own like privacy, which makes it difficult to abide by India’s laws. This issue had in the past prompted the government to take stringent measures against crypto-related activities.

“The idea is not to shut crypto down, but how to plug those holes. Crypto could be the next internet and India would definitely not want to miss out on that,” Singhal said.

Notably, both parties are currently in a question-and-answer phase, with many expecting the outcome to be in favor of the industry.

India’s Regulators’ Move on Crypto

Recall that there have been several forms of hostility by the Indian government against cryptocurrencies.

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed all regulated banks to desist from offering financial services to companies or banks that are involved in cryptocurrency trading, following a series of crypto-related fraud cases.

However, in March 2020, a ruling by the Indian’s Supreme Court squashed the ban imposed by the RBI, thus allowing residents in the country to freely trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Ever since the SC ruling was made in favor of crypto, there has been speculation that the government will still move against the asset class and completely prohibit its use as a means of payment in illegitimate activities.

According to reports, India is close to regulating cryptocurrencies. Contrary to speculation that the government may place an outright ban on cryptocurrency trading, the country’s finance minister Anurag Thakur noted earlier this year that the upcoming crypto bill would be established without bias.

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