Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman clarified during the initial days of the Parliament winter session itself, that a new bill on cryptocurrencies would soon be introduced, following cabinet approval. Government is still tight-lipped about the draft’s content.

Central banks and law enforcement agencies world over have always been wary of the cryptocurrency phenomenon. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das echoed this in recent days, when he said that they could adversely impact monetary policy, and would upset currency and fiscal stability. This unconstructiveness is justifiable to a large extent.

Recent weeks saw multiple large cryptocurrency exchanges, all lacking legal sanctity, broadcast a plethora of advertisements across mediums. Their efforts did make an impact, as the number of cryptocurrency purchasers, many of them even underage, burgeoned during these times. The volatility of these digital instruments led to a few short-term, credulous investors experience steep losses. Amidst the excitement, many ignorant investors were duped by ‘get rich quick’ scams. Sadly, the lack of a regulatory framework meant that none of these victims even had a channel for filing their grievances.


These digital instruments, beyond the ambit of taxation, could be used as an avenue to transfer unaccounted, and anonymous amounts across geographical borders. These could be used to support any anti-social or anti-national activity, including money laundering and terrorism.

Despite all the associated dangers, democracies including US, Japan, Singapore, and EU have never resorted to a ban. However, they are all still experimenting with various regulations. This is because of the potential of BlockChain technology underlying these digital instruments. This revolutionary technology could decentralize, and democratize our digital realm, create trillions of additional value, all the while making the resultant digital economy more redistributive and fairer. However, it is impossible to build BlockChain networks, without distributing Coins and Tokens to its participating collaborators including developers and entrepreneurs.

India should study some of the legislations enacted in other global innovation hubs, and create a viable regulatory framework, without creating an environment that would stifle the rapidly growing BlockChain ecosystem.

Anil K. Antony