The crypto industry found a reason to cheer as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on November 30 said the government would introduce the new Crypto Bill in Parliament after Cabinet approval.
Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO and Co-founder of Unocoin, said, "The previous draft of the Bill was very harsh on cryptocurrencies. So definitely it can only get better now. Since the government is taking time to do research on technology and regulation, it looks like it is going in a positive direction."
After the Lok Sabha bulletin was released last Tuesday, it was widely speculated that the bill which is set to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament may be the same as which was drafted earlier, since the wordings of the bill were similar. The bill “seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India” but allows “for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology and its uses.”
However, Moneycontrol earlier reported that there is a difference in the naming of the 2019 and 2021 bills. While the earlier bill’s name suggested a blanket ban-The ‘Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019’, the current bill is named ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’
Sharan Nair, Chief Business Officer at CoinSwitch Kuber said, "This is a positive sign. If they planned to ban it there would have been no question of reworking the Bill, they would have just gone ahead and done it. But this looks like they are putting more thought into it and finding more nuances. Also, in terms of tech laws India has never come out with laws so soon, usually India comes up with regulations much later. But this has been super fast and in-line with other countries. So it is a positive.
Big day for crypto in IndiaI am feeling more positive.
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