Trading, mining, transfer and holding of cryptocurrency in India will be considered a crime, India to propose a ban on cryptocurrency soon

There is bad news for those investing in cryptocurrency in India. Cryptocurrency will be banned in the country, besides its trading, mining, transfer and holding can be made a criminal offence. The government is working on such a bill. A senior government official gave information about this. According to the official, the transfer, holding, mining and trading of cryptocurrencies can be severely punished. This has been on the government’s agenda since January, with the government considering a ban on private virtual currencies such as bitcoin, while the government will bring in its own digital currency. The bill will give cryptocurrencies holders up to six months to liquidate it, followed by a penalty.

It is expected that this bill will not have much problem in making laws, because the government has an absolute majority in Parliament. If this ban becomes law, India will be the first major economy to declare cryptocurrency illegal. There is a ban on its mining and trading in China as well. Keeping cryptocurrency in India would be a crime. All trading exchanges will be banned. It would be a crime to keep and sell it. In such cases, there will be a provision for both fine and imprisonment.

It is noteworthy that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had expressed concern about the impact of cryptocurrency in the past and made the government aware of it. The RBI had said that cryptocurrency could affect the financial stability of the country’s economy. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that we have some big apprehensions about cryptocurrencies. We have made the government aware of that. The government can take a decision on this.

Das had mentioned blockchain technology, he said that there is a need to use the advantages of blockchain technology, it is a different matter. But in terms of crypto, there is a huge concern from the point of view of financial stability and we have shared it with the government. RBI has earlier expressed concern over the use of digital currency for money laundering and terror funding. Das had also spoken of launching RBI’s own digital currency.