It has been a long time coming, but the Indian Supreme Court finally sided with the cryptocurrency community, lifting a ban imposed by the Reserve Bank. For the crypto exchanges, this is extremely good news and they can now get back to business. Many of these exchanges saw their revenue slashed by up to 90%, with some even shutting down. Those that had the financial muscle relocated to other countries.
Already, the exchanges have sprung into action, integrating crypto/rupee trading pairs and bank account transfers on their platforms. One of these is CoinDCX, one of the largest exchanges in India. Just six hours after the ban was lifted, the exchange revealed that it had integrated bank account transfers.
The CEO, Sumit Gupta told CoinGeek, “India’s crypto environment is going to have a transformation after the court verdict. Because of this, crypto-INR pairs are going to see a massive jump as new investors (both institutional and retail) can now invest in the crypto markets without any hesitation or skepticism. The market is open for everyone in India now.”
Gupta believes that the lifting of the ban will open up a huge market, as the “integration of banking channels makes the whole process of crypto adoption simpler. With renewed accessibility and convenience in purchasing cryptocurrencies, we believe that this change will have a dramatic effect in accelerating crypto adoption in India.”
With a population of 1.3 billion people, second only to China, India offers a large market for cryptos. However, ambiguous regulations and the RBI ban have hindered the spread of crypto. The lifting of the ban is a great first step and could see the trading volume spike back to former levels.
Vishal Gupta, an entrepreneur behind a number of crypto startups in India told Livemint, “Volumes in the Indian market could increase by 100, 200 or even 500 times.” India used to account for over 2,500 in BTC traded (currently worth over $22 million), he stated. He expects the trading volume to be even higher in three months’ time.
Ashish Singhal, the CEO of CoinSwitch exchange puts this number even higher, estimating that India used to account for up to $60 million worth of daily traded volume before the ban. With the court’s decision, the country could become one of the largest markets globally, he believes.
The RBI ban only restricted crypto entities from accessing banking services. However, misinformation was rife in India and many people interpreted it as a blanket ban on crypto, assuming they were illegal. With the ban now lifted, the crypto community has the task of educating the masses about crypto. The media must also play its part, Gaurav Dahake, the CEO of Bitbns exchange believes.
He stated, “Besides, we hope the media houses across the country would cover the news positively and the myths questioning the legality of crypto in India, would ideally be reduced to nil.”
Great as this victory is for the crypto industry, much more needs to be done. Top among them is the implementation of regulations. India has yet to formulate regulations for crypto amidst reports that the government was working on a total ban for cryptos.
Raghy Mohan, the founder and CEO of IBC Media told Livemint, “At the outset, what it looks like is that at least common sense has prevailed. But I wouldn’t go far as to say that this is the start of positive regulation for crypto.”
The CEO of P2P crypto trading platform Tandem, Prashant Swaminathan agrees, stating that this is just the first step. He stated, “There’s still a bill that the Parliament has to discuss. It has changed shapes and forms but hopefully this will be the framework for how cryptocurrency is traded in the country.”
The future of the Indian crypto industry is still unclear. Nevertheless, the lifting of the banking ban by the Supreme Court is a step in the right direction and will give the industry hope that positive regulations will be forthcoming in the near future.
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