Categories: Crypto News
| Published On Dec 2, 2017 6:26 am CET  |  Updated on May 2, 2021 2:13 pm CEST | By iGaming Team

Crypto currency is illegal in India: FM Jaitley

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Crypto currency has been deemed illegal in India. The Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley, has said that India does not recognise crypto currency as a legal tender.

 Over the last year, virtual currency has gained traction among investors. In past few days, virtual currency market has strengthened tremendously with Bitcoin touching a record high of $11,434.

 Jaitley cleared the government’s stance on the digital currency, saying the government does not recognise crypto currency although recommendations are being worked on; but as of now, it is not a legal currency.

 Earlier in August this year, Jaitley had informed Parliament that no regulations are governing virtual currencies in India and the Reserve bank of India (RBI) has not awarded any licence to any entity or company to operate such currencies.

 He further added that the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) had made a committee with representatives from DEA, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), RBI, Niti Aayog and State Bank of India (SBI). The committee took a look at the challenges increasing use of virtual currencies (VCs) put forth, and also from the regulatory viewpoint. The committee has presented its report which is being looked at.

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 Recently, a Bitcoin exchange start-up BitBox had announced the introduction of the advanced marketplace for trading Bitcoin in India. The exchange lets a user access high liquidity order book for BTC/INR pair to allow buying or selling of Bitcoins instantly.

 Given the meteoric rise of the virtual currency, almost every regulatory body across the globe is working on legal and regulatory framework.

 This has been a record-breaking year for crypto currency market, which has appreciated by more than 5,000% since the start of the year. In just six months, the crypto market cap has seen a fivefold increase which now stands at a new all-time high of $305.1 billion.