Indian startups join hands to ensure dialogue with Centre for crypto market

In an effort to become organised, entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Indian crypto currency industry are joining hands to discuss the future of digital currencies in India with the government, according to a report on PR Newswire.

“To engage in a dialogue with the government, entrepreneurs have joined hands to form ABCE- Association of Blockchain & Crypto Entrepreneurs," Sidharth Sogani, CEO of CREBACO Global was quoted as saying in the report.

For the past few months, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have become a hot topic of discussion. The major reason behind this has been Bitcoin's crazy non-stop rise. On Saturday, Bitcoin touched a market capitalisation of $1 trillion, its highest ever, as the value of world’s most popular cryptocurrency crossed an all-time high of $55,000 per coin.

However, in India, despite a Supreme Court judgement, the central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are moving towards banning ‘private digital currencies’. The government is planning to bring The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital currency Bill, 2021 which will ban all ‘private cryptocurrencies’ and allow RBI to run its own digital currency. Cryptocurencies, world over, are seen as decentralised public assets rather than being private in nature.

Experts believe banning is not a solution. Moreover, banning will attract constitutional challenges.

"As an industry, we have been following the global best practices. This has helped us nurture and build a clean crypto ecosystem in India. With this association, we plan to work towards bringing positive crypto regulations to India. When every other country is bringing regulations, India should not be left behind," said Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, the largest bitcoin exchange in India.

The industry believes most of the players in the crypto market are start-ups and banning digital currencies will negatively impact them, which is why they have announced a dedicated entrepreneurs' association to bring a regulated market in India

According to the report, cryptocurrency industry in India already has a potential market value of $15 billion with more than 10 million active users and 5 major exchanges.