SC crypto ruling welcome, but industry wary of Indian government

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court quashing the Reserve Bank of India’s order that banned financial services firms from trading in cryptocurrency has been well received by the industry, but most still remain wary of taking the next step.

The general thinking in the industry seems to be that the SC’s ruling is only the first step, and it can’t yet trust a government that has been publicly against allowing crypto exchanges and startups function effectively in India. “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,” said Prashant Swaminathan, founder & CEO of Tandem, a peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading platform.

A draft bill had earlier proposed a ban on the use of cryptocurrency in India and also a jail term for those dealing in it.