The parliament of India held its first meeting on the future of cryptocurrencies in the country. At the meeting, it was agreed that crypto-assets should be regulated in the country and that a comprehensive ban is off the table.
India parliament held its first meeting on crypto assets on Monday. Chaired by ruling party leader Jayant Sinha, the meeting was attended by Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC) members, industry bodies and stakeholders, as well as Binance-owned country’s leading crypto asset trading platform WazirX, another leading crypto platform CoinDCX and CoinSwitch. Companies such as Kuber also participated. The country was already in dialogue with crypto stakeholders, but this was the first official meeting where their views were also discussed.
The meeting concluded positively for the cryptoasset community. The country has agreed that cryptocurrencies should be regulated and a sweeping ban is off the table. However, it is not yet clear who will regulate this market. A source used the following statements on the subject:
“There was a general consensus among members of parliament that there should be regulation rather than prohibition. Now there are two ways to look at it. Either 90% banned and 10% allowed, or vice versa. This is the pending trade debate. For that, we need to go point by point, a source told Financial Express. ”
This Monday meeting came just after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss the potential use of cryptocurrencies for illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing. These meetings in quick succession seem to point to the fact that the government wants to introduce a crypto regulatory mechanism as early as possible.
While details on the bill have yet to be disclosed, it has dispelled fears of a sweeping ban that has plagued the Indian crypto industry for years, as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured that cryptoassets would not be banned.
