Cryptocurrency exchanges have seen a victory in India. The country's banks can welcome their customers dealing with crypto again, but the fight is still not over, and the ban could still be passed, as there are more hurdles along the way.
Back in 2018, the central bank gave an order to all financial institutions to stop their crypto-related deals with businesses and individuals, which had sunk trade volumes and exchanges in the country had to close their doors. India’s Supreme Court has listened to concerns and agreed with petitions by crypto exchanges, startups and other industry members, and it has overturned a crypto ban previously imposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), allowing banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from exchanges and traders, reports Reuters.
However, the crypto regulations are yet to be finalized by India's government. There is still a government panel standing in the industry's way. This panel - which last year a 10-year prison sentence and fines for those dealing in crypto - finds that the country should ban all private cryptocurrencies.
Tani Ratna, Founder and CEO at Policy 4.0, and global blockchain policy/regulation specialist, states that this is a historic case, but that the battle is not over. In a blog post, she explains that "all petitions are filed against the RBI, and not the Finance Ministry report or draft ban bill." Therefore, this ruling will only address the RBI circular, says Ratna, so the Supreme Court is "highly unlikely to issue any directive against the Finance Ministry, and impact their position on the issue."
The financial policymakers may decide to rethink the issue, says Ratna, given that the verdict goes against the actions of the central bank, but since it addresses the question of regulatory overreach of the RBI only, "and leaves sufficient leeway for policymakers to decide upon the treatment of cryptocurrencies," the rethinking may not happen.
"In other words, the draft cryptocurrency ban bill could be still be tabled and passed in the Indian parliament, despite the verdict from the Supreme Court."
Still, the ruling may bring about positive changes in the industry's fight against the attempts to impose ever-stricter measures on it. “Cryptocurrencies are an exciting technology that needs to be carefully studied,” Vaibhav Kakkar, a partner at law firm L&L Partners, is quoted by Bloomberg. “With this order, there is a likelihood of more mature and balanced regulation of cryptocurrencies and the fintech sector as a whole.”
Kunal Barchha, Co-founder of crypto exchange CoinRecoil.com, is quoted as saying that “Now crypto traders, investors, miners, can proudly speak up about what they do for a living, [and] won’t be judged as criminals.”
___
Other reactions:
Here’s the photo of the IAMAI representatives from Supreme Court. The joy is evident.
— Naimish Sanghvi (@ThatNaimish)
@zhusu 1.3 bilion people enter crypto
— hokuspokus1.0 (@angelomike444)
@NischalShetty Almost no news reports at all about this.. Shows how irrelavent this crypto news is to Indians
— Manoj Kumar ???? ???? (@findmanu)
@gautamchhugani Incredible. Today all of crypto is Indian! Congratulations to India and the industry. ######
— Eric Dadoun (@EDadoun)
