Hi! I am Ashish, the BBOD India Lead. I will be writing monthly reports about Blockchain/Crypto related events in India and its impact on the Indian crypto community.

Let’s face it, the main problem the Indian community faces currently is regulation. After the blanket ban on cryptocurrencies by the RBI, there have been a lot of grey areas when it comes to trading cryptocurrencies and the taxes around it. Yet, there are plenty of traders in India that are looking forward to positive regulation. This monthly report will primarily cover the news around regulations that were prevalent in the last month.

Source:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/personal-finance-news/blanket-ban-on-bitcoin-rbi-asks-banks-not-to-allow-buying-cryptocurrency/videoshow/63629506.cms



PM Modi Discussed Crypto Standards at the G20 Summit

There have been a lot of questions around the crypto regulations in India. This was addressed in the G20 Summit. PM Modi raised many issues including global finance and technological innovations which are beneficial for financial markets. There were also discussions about applying the recently amended FATF (Financial Action Task Force) to virtual assets. When the summit was concluded, the leaders of the G20 nations including India issued a declaration jointly which includes a statement on crypto assets. The declaration was as follows –



“We, the leaders of the G20, met in Osaka, Japan on 28-29 June 2019 to make united efforts to address major global economic challenges … We reaffirm our commitment to applying the recently amended FATF standards to virtual assets and related providers for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center), and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 leaders’ summit in Japan.

Source – https://news.bitcoin.com/modi-discussed-crypto-standards-g20-summit-india/

India Budget – 2019

The crypto community in India was hopeful and waiting for some positive news about cryptocurrencies in the Budget – 2019. However, there was no mention of cryptocurrencies in the Budget. A part of the community is satisfied as they can continue trading crypto as like always, while some wait hopefully for the supreme court ruling that has been in the waitlist for a long time.

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the 2019 Budget.

Source – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/union-budget-2019-highlights/articleshow/69984859.cms



India Imprisoning Crypto Users

FUD headlines like these are already circulating in the media for quite some time now but the article last month about imprisonment of crypto users for 10 years spread like wildfire. This news was however not entirely true. It was merely a draft bill that was not submitted anywhere. Even the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) denied any knowledge of this bill.

There was also quite some backlash in the crypto community. Needless to say, most of the community was quite relaxed as they were aware of the FUD in the marketplace that happens every couple months.

Indian Crypto Exchange (Koinex) shuts down blaming Banking Ban

There has been a lot of pressure on Indian exchanges registered in India, which include bank accounts being shut down as per the order by RBI. Exchanges were having a tough time paying salaries to their employees and disbursing funds to traders that withdraw money from the exchange. Here’s a quote from the statement Koinex made before shutting down –

“A snapshot of the wallet balances at this time will be taken for record, and the effort to disburse [Indian rupee] balances will begin immediately. Since the bank accounts with user funds are still frozen and the capital is held up, we have made arrangements for funds from our own resources, so that we return as much as we possibly can, back to our users and alleviate their position in reference to the funds held up in these frozen accounts.”



In the past Zebpay has closed operations in India and several other Indian origin exchanges have registered themselves in crypto friendly nations.



Source- https://www.coindesk.com/another-indian-crypto-exchange-shuts-down-blaming-banking-ban

Crypto racket busted in Surat

There have been plenty of scams in India which give the crypto space a bad rep. These rackets merely mention the name of crypto but do not have the ethics to match it. Another such crypto racket emerged in Surat where a coin by the name ‘KBC coin’ was launched 6 months ago which promised a 10,000% return in no time. It lured plenty of people in the scam and millions were stolen. Some promoters of the scam were arrested while some are still absconding. Such schemes are quite prevalent in places across India and are used to park Black Money. Since Black Money is involved, not a lot of complaints were filed with the police. Crypto education is key for mass adoption and for people to understand the long term viability options of legitimate cryptocurrencies.

Source – https://m.timesofindia.com/city/ahmedabad/another-cryptocurrency-racket-busted-four-held/amp_articleshow/70079905.cms

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