Govt grappling with measures to regulate virtual currencies despite RBI ban

In April, the Reserve Bank of India issued a direction to all financial institutions under its direct control to stop associating with any person or company facilitating the trade of virtual currencies in the country. 

Even as banks complied with the regulator’s diktat, cryptocurrency exchanges morphed into peer-to-peer platforms and sidestepped the directions. Clearly, the ban didn’t prove enough. Questions are now being asked how exactly the government will find legal backing to tame the trade in virtual currencies. 

The RBI took note of these developments in its recently released Annual Report. The apex banking regulator stated that the trade