Bitcoin Forum

 "Banks across India are cracking down on bitcoin trade, months after Finance Minster Arun Jaitley publicly denounced the digital currency.

Bitcoin opened on the markets at $12,899.20 (£9,307.16) before plunging by $1,000 (£721.53) just before 8am GMT.

The token bounced back somewhat at 2.05pm GMT, exchanging hands at $12,199.50 (£8,802.31) – down 4.11 percent on the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin exchanges in India are now under fire, with the State Bank of India (SB), Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank reportedly closing or limiting activity on accounts tied to bitcoin trade."
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/907786/bitcoin-price-india-cryptocurrency-trading-btc-exchange

Banks are getting scared and I think people will always find a way if they want it.

It's a little difficult to understand India's stance on BTC and crypto currency in general. Few months ago, Finance Minister denounced cryptos as 'ponzi schemes'. After that announced that Reliance will launch their crypto currency 'JioCoin' and Reliance being one of the 'beneficiaries' of the government they will regulate cryptos which will increase adoption. And now this cracking down people with BTC profit. Hopefully they make up their mind as a lot of BTC transactions happen in India.

Your country may prohibit the use of bitcoin coins

Governments or Banks can ban as much as they want. If people have a desire, they'll find a way to get it when they want it bad enough. Crypto will grow and those that embrace it will benefit from said growth. Those that reject it, will lose out on business.

I agree. I thought that they will not make hard stance against crypto, or at least remain neutral. But the sudden shift caught me by surprise. They are not like Russia, releasing statement then totally contracting them in the coming days.

Yeah, I hope that they make up their mind and moved towards regulation of crypto and not a hammer ban. This announcement has somewhat affecting the market, because the price is now going down.

Though, at the end, this impact is just short term.

I agree, that clampdown in China in August just sent Chinese traders to Korean exchanges. I think the demand is there and people will find a way to be part of the future. I mean weeds been ban, but most countries I've been to always seem to have it around.

This is odd, hope India will not follow the stupid Chinese government and ban completely the cryptocurrencies. It will be bad for India.

They'll probably eventually backtrack. Their demonetization gig didn't seem to have the result they were hoping for and just caused disruption which cost them money. People will find ways to use those bitcoins they currently have and they could end up like how they use bitcoins in Venezuela, which would be the last thing the government wants. If they would instead simply require the exchanges to ask for identification and submit information to them, then they could have taxed these people instead.

I guess this have been happening all over the world. I remember reading recent news regarding coinbase and one of it's major banking partners. I doubt they will keep this for long, and are probably just trying to hit more pressure over bitcoin regulation. With moves like this, regulating crypto becomes a priority for all, otherwise the markets will slow down a lot since it would be hard to get more capital into these markets.
I wont say that this doesn't worry me though. If we examine things carefully, we can't really use crypto, and we need to buy it with fiat and exchange it to fiat in order to get value out of it. If banks shut down exchanges accounts, and payment systems that use crypto, like neteller or others like it, it would be hard to buy or sell crypto. I guess we would only be able to do it in person, and that wouldn't be very easy to do.

Of course I don't think they can do this by themselves and for no reason, so if governments allow crypto, then banks can't really shut it down like this.

The problem are the mainstream banks, they don't like Crypto-Currency and cause a lot of trouble by closing enthusiast's accounts on their systems. A palliative solution would be to migrate to an alternative bank that is friendly to Crypto-Currency. I don't know if there is anyone in India, but that is a good idea.

Government can put some regulations over the alternative banks too, to force them to close enthuasiast's accounts as well, but it doesn't happen so fast as a judicial process starts, all parts must be heared, judge must decide... It might take years to be solved.

Where I live a similar situation happened, mainstream banks didn't want Crypto enthusiasts anymore on their system, but it wasn't so easy for them, a judicial process started and they had to give the accounts back to everyone, including the exchange bank's account. But it's always an unstable situation.

Well it seems that their stance is as volatile as crypto itself lol. It may not be the end of this ever changing crackdowns as its not only india who seems not sure of what to do. Though clearly these fuds are causing panic as well to many crypto traders, thus affecting btc value.

There could be two main facets to this.

#1 Banks want to shut down bitcoin and crypto as they don't want people to see the progress and innovation it represents.
#2 Nations are tightening measures to keep capital inside their borders. Possibly due to recession, economic slowdown and related concerns.

I know that students in school are taught that banks need to lend more money than they have to fuel innovation and economic growth.

This is an interesting angle to that concept and shows that banks may in fact restrict innovation and profit to maintain the status quo and prevent fat cats at the top of the food chain from being deposed by more innovative and progressive developments.

Some banking services has come up with the ans of shutting those accounts used for trading bitcoin. Some banks has frozen their accounts and has requested to file tax for the transactions that they have made. Also they have been asked to file the cryptocurrency holding that they have in their wallets. This is completely rude.

I think that this is the more likely reason of why these actions are happening. Banks are nothing more than an extension of the government, and for that reason will do everything to not cross a certain line. Banks are businesses as well, and I am fairly sure that with proper regulations, they are quite willing to at least offer some services concerning Bitcoin or other crypto currencies. This market has so much growth potential, and that in so many ways, that it only makes sense for financial institutions to start entering the crypto land. It's governmental pressure forcing this through, that I am pretty sure of.

India has been iffy on the situation I believe since the beginning of the huge burst. The issue as of now, however, is that the Indian government doesn't really have as much power as expected. I am of Indian descent, and I know first-handedly that the government in the past has been rough when it comes to following through with plans.

However, with the new PM, there has been progress made, especially financially. It seems like the government will be heading towards a path that allows for more taxes to flow into the govt for much needed country improvements.

This looks like a step backward. India need all the money it can get. The earnings of those traders enter the economy as disposable income, they gain more buying power. Despite India's world ranking a large part of the population is still poor and they can benefit from this. The government could have earned more if they require customer information to given to them so they can tax it. Another thing they could have done is to encourage the creation of more local exchanges that would operate internationally but ban their citizens from using international exchanges. That way they have money mostly coming in.

Maybe Indian government sees it as them losing control over citizens because they can't tax those transactions completely since not all people will comply to submit customer information for them to get taxed. I also doubt that Indians would use regularly their national exchange if they ever did that because most people get irritated with regulations. For this reason they don't see it as a step backwards but a step forward to maintaining government control over citizens.

Well, don't every government worry about that? My tax income! ;D

Even with exchanges legal there would always be people who will try to evade taxes (seriously, who LOVES paying those?). But the thing is, even if these people don't pay taxes, the exchanges would. In my country for example, there is really only one large exchange. Since they earn from the spread, they have to pay the government their taxes. The exchange have all our details, including photos of our gov't IDs. Should the government decide to go after even small people like us, they can but in the meantime, they are earning money from that exchange.

There's also the hard to quantify benefit of these excess money going into businesses that do pay taxes. Even if I don't pay my income tax, all my purchase would have the value-added tax on it and the grocery chain would also have to pay as well.

Well, India is a potential market. But, the government seems to have a negative attitude on the cryptocurrencies. As a market watcher, i believe India could tax the income rather than banning it altogether.

That is the part that is relevant in all this in that no matter how much they think they will clamp down, they are just creating an opportunity for people to be ingenious in the way to do things. People who are of link minded don't even need the exchange sites to make trades all they need to do is create groups which I have seen people do on WhatsApp and buying and selling is being done without limitations, transfers will be made to the banks and nothing would be suspicious. When people are determined about a course of action, they are the only ones that can stop themselves.

I read about it and apparently India is not regulating it nor are banks allowing them to make transactions. Koinomi an Indian exchange said that they are forced to suspend withdrawals and deposits due to such miscommunication between banks. They are trying to act compliant so until and unless the central bank has to say anything on it, banks will continue to do what they are doing. After all its banks we are talking about.

So not only does India have no idea what they're doing when it comes down to cryptos, they're also trying to shut down their internal fiat transactions bu banning their larger banknotes as well? What kind of economy are they trying to run? It seems like every other moment they're trying to screw the rest of the country in favor of those towards the top, but it is a caste system anyway so it's not surprising that they're making these kinds of choices. Always fun to listen to those screaming that India will be a superpower by 2020 but I refuse to believe that they'll ever come close to any of the force projection capabilities required to do so. Internal dealings like this cement that belief for me.

Absolutely. People would definitely find another way to continue with their bitcoins.Indian government stand is totally confusing over the past few months.Its definitely a drawback for bitcoin users in India.There were three big bitcoin exchanges in India which may get even shut by the recent moves from the government. People would have to follow the way of Chinese where they shifted their trading activities to counter sales and using telegram chats for trades as the messages are encrypted.

Its such a shame that the government see crypto currencies as a threat, crypto currencies can be the future currency that help to make transactions easier, the government shouldn't be banning crypto but should regulated it, crypto got a huge potential to help people out from poverty

This is why we need more decentralized exchanger which can be easily accessed by people from all over the world. It's not a new thing that they dislike crypto and think it's a threat to them. Though India has a large market and country with the largest population after China. I hope the government started legalizing bitcoin like the Japanese government did.

They only interested on the technology behind bitcoin the blockchain, not the bitcoin itself since they can't control it.

There are still other options .. we can still use other Banks .. it was something that was supposed to happen everyone had a fair warning but you can still do person to person trade and then ask them to directly transfer the money , that won't create any problem , but they are being extremely conservative and that's not something good I feel , also people can Always stand up against them , they aren't living in dictatorship.

They're not banning Bitcoin though. Or rather, not yet, at the very least. It seems like Bitcoin's legality in India is stuck in limbo at the moment, but I read something about their tax agency reaching out to people who don't declare their crypto income. I see this as a positive, because if they pursue taxation, it could signify that they're leaning towards acceptance.

Either way, I don't think banks closing accounts have anything to do with crypto regulations. You here about banks all over the world pulling off the same move, even in countries like the US where crypto is fairly openly accepted. These closures are likely internal decisions. It's unfortunate, but the only thing you can do when a bank denies you service is to look for another bank.