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India Is Considering Criminalising Bitcoin

India Is Considering Criminalising Bitcoin
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India’s government is considering introducing an outright ban on cryptocurrency that would see 10 year jail sentences given to anyone caught trading, mining or holding the currency. 

The “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019” has been in the works for some time now, and it seems India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has previously set up a panel to investigate how best to regulate cryptocurrency back in November 2017.

The driving force behind the regulation is that the crypto is being used for illegal activities such as drug purchasing money laundering. The outright ban of cryptocurrency has received the support of several governmental bodies, including the Income Tax Department and the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, but officials at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have denied all knowledge of the regime.

“It’s premature to come to a conclusion on this,” Vishal Gupta, who’s a CEO of multiple crypto based currencies, told Live Mint. Adding the part of the bill that has been so widely discussed refers to illegal activities using cryptocurrencies which is equivalent to saying that using rupees for illegal activities is illegal. While the bubble may have burst for Bitcoin, cryptocurrency analysts are feeling optimistic. It is now trading just below $8,000 but people expect this number to rise, potentially higher than the 2017 peak of 20k, as American big name brands like AT&T, Starbucks, and Wholefoods have started accepting cryptocurrency payments.

Despite this, India is planning to release it’s own digital currency; the “digital rupee” which makes me think they’re just banning the biggest crypto for their own personal gain. Who knows.

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