Bitcoin has witnessed a great fall in its value in past few days, dropping below $6000 for the first time since the mid of November. Many U.S banks have turned down their cryptocurrency transactions on their credit cards. China, which was previously trying to minimize the cryptocurrency transactions, has now blocked crypto exchanges. Similar steps are being taken by other countries like Nigeria, Taiwan, Bangladesh and more.
In between all this frenzy going on, the Indian government has decided not to ban Bitcoin just yet. But it is taking its toll on Cryptocurrency. Indian Finance minister Arun Jaitley told the Parliament that the government doesn’t crypto-currencies a legal tender and will take steps to eliminate its use in illegitimate financial activities and various payment systems. However, the government will be exploring the potential uses of Blockchain technology for ushering in the digital economy.
Right after Jaitley’s statement during the national finance budget, Subhash Chandra Garg, secretary of economic affairs said that the government will set up a panel to examine the trading of crypto assets in unregulated exchanges and will submit a report by the end of March this year.
India had already shown its aversion to such virtual currencies back in December 2013 and the warnings have increased ever since, huge number of people started investing in cryptocurrencies.
However, Jaitley clearly seemed to be enthusiastic about the use of Blockchain technology. Ajeet Khurana, head of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee(BACC) of IAMAI seems to be happy that cryptocurrency was in the least mentioned in the national finance budget and finds Jaitley’s opinion to be absolutely logical. Crypto trading isn’t illegal and it comes with its own risks like any other investment in the market.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not banned in India yet. The government is just keeping a check on the illegal activities that happen via BTC or other cryptocurrencies. So the future of Bitcoin and Blockchain technology is still alive in India.