India Seeks A Tech-Driven Framework For Crypto
- The financial minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, said that the regulators are looking to establish a global, tech-driven regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and their trading in the country.
- The goal of the regulators is to collaborate and collect information on cryptocurrencies and its usage across the world and in India and present it to the G20 countries.
- Sitharaman earlier stated that she expects the usage and adoption of blockchain technology to grow in the country by over 46% in the coming years.
The crypto adoption rate in India grew swiftly in 2021 during the bull run, when the crypto trading platform saw exponential growth in terms of users. However, in recent days, the Southern Pacific nation has witnessed plenty of rough patches, mostly due to heavy taxation on crypto assets and the uncertainty of the laws regarding these blockchain-based assets in the world’s biggest democracy.
The leaders of the country are preparing for India’s one-year presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) beginning Dec. 1 and according to the statement from the financial minister of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman, the regulators are looking to establish a global, tech-driven regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and their trading in the country.
“During our engagements, we heard that already institutions which are associated with the G20 or the World Bank or any other, are doing their own assessment and studies of matters related to cryptocurrencies or crypto assets,”
Sitharaman said.
According to Sitharaman, the goal of the regulators is to collaborate and collect information on cryptocurrencies and its usage across the world and in India. The plan is to present all the collected data in infront of G20 members which includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and others.
The finance minister of the country also stated that there has been a significant surge in the usage of cryptocurrencies for money laundering and terrorist financing in India which has worried the authorities as they believe that there is an immediate need to curb such illicit activities tied with the crypto space.
India has imposed a heavy taxation on investors in in the country. While stocks are taxed at a rate of 20%, the crypto investors have been taxed at a heavy rate of 30% which means that investment in crypto has been compared to putting money in betting, horse racing, gambling, and other types of similar activities. On the other hand, the government has also recognized the possibility of the usage these blockchain-based tokens in other fields.
Last month, the finance minster of India expects blockchain adoption to grow significantly in the coming years.
“In two years, digitisation of payment portals is one of the exemplar cases showing that scaling up has happened in the financial world. Definitely, a big investment layer is growing in the tech side of finance. Use of blockchain is expected to rise by 46% within the next 4 years,”
Sitharaman said.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted that it is set to begin a CBDC trial with fintech companies and public sector banks and also added that the trial might come before the RBI launches a CBDC this fiscal year.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
