Bitcoin Forum

India and Pakistan banned the trading of crypto currencies.

India :
The Indian government previously compared the investment of crypto currency to the Ponzi scheme that offered an unusually high return to early investors.
The government has also formed a panel to investigate the crypto-currency and plans to appoint regulators to oversee unregulated exchanges.
The founder of The Block Chain and Cryptocurrency Committee, Vishal Gupta estimates that at least 4 to 5 million people in India have a kind of crypto currency and that 60% of them just enter the market between October and December, when prices are at the top.
The bitcoin price fell to a low of 350,000 rupees (US $ 5,392) compared to the international market price of US $ 6,617, following the announcement of the RBI.

Pakistan :
Bank Negara Pakistan tells banks and other financial services providers to refuse customers looking for crypto currency transactions. The central bank also said that those who use crypto currency to transfer funds outside Pakistan may be prosecuted.

This is bad news for people who are into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in India and of course any bad news in a country as big as India can be bad for the whole cryptocurrency as well. Though there has been no major negative reaction generally speaking this news is still bad for all of us. While I am still hoping that soon India can open up their market to cryptocurrency, we have no choice but to respect the government's decision.

I don't know what is up with India and Pakistan. Be it any form of currency, it brings revenue and people start investing in it. And investment is a personal choice. If government or banks think that it is illegal, why not authenticate all the cryptocurrencies and then give an official approval?

Indian governments opening up to the crypto market after the recent statement release by RBI seems a hard thing to believe. Rather one thing that is foreseeable right now is Indian government declaring a ban on the crypto currency. As far as Indian government is concerned, political leaders and decision makers are totally against the crypto market. They are in no way in a mood to give a green signal to the crypto market.

Right you are! This is what happens when the entire system is controlled by uneducated politicians. I am sure if Mr. Rajan continues to be our chief governor, India would have adopted crytpocurrency for better use. But now the country is being ruled by a political party who are busy building temples than hospitals and schools. So we can't expect anything better for us. We have to live with this fact that India is still not a developed country even after having a trillion dollar economy.

But hey! Weed and drugs are also banned in India, but we have abundant supply available. So who cares!!

I feel sorry to all citizens that are living in these countries because their government are close minded institution in which they could not see the benefits if Bitcoin will be adapted in their country that all those speculated accusations about Bitcoin can be avoided as long as they regulate it in which the most important is the welfare of their people that Bitcoin as investments can change lives specially the poor.

There is some truth in this. Right now the prices in Localbitcoins India are at least $500 per coin lower than the international exchange rates ($7,200 per coin versus $7,700 per coin). It used to be just the reverse (the rates in India used to he higher than the international prices).

It's sad how there's so much potential for India's economy to develop however based from your remark, it seems like the government is in the hands of incompetent rulers. Instead of utilizing crypto to possibly help the economy move forward, there is now a possibility that the Indian government will declare a ban. Perhaps in the future they will begin to ease up on cryptocurrencies, after all there are many smart people in India.

But you have to understand why these 2 nations are against crypto for that matter. We all know that those 2 nations are being used as a hub by terrorist group and I speculate that they this group might take advantage of crypto to send funds to their counterpart and cover their tracks in either in India or Pakistan. I don't buy their reason because crypto is a Ponzi scheme or HYIP is just another excuses to hide their government real reasons for banning it. IMHO. Although the one that will be really affected by it is our India and Pakistani's brother who have been in bitcoin and crypto for such a long time.

India and pakistan not good social relations so crypto are banned.

It is funny that you club India and Pakistan together as being a hub for terrorism. They are vastly, vastly, different. In any case, fears about terrorist financing aren't the primary reason for these countries taking action against cryptocurrencies. Money laundering fears and a conservative policy in monetary matters are.

As you said the terrorism is not a matter here,if that was then terriorist may buy he bitcoin from the foreighn countries and can keep using it.BUt these governments are feared of money laundering or they just want to control their citizen from by using the decentralized money.

Indian government and banking regulators have being warning users in India form last here and it was more or less confirmed the next action government would be taking was nothing less than banning them and finally that only happened some couple of weeks back . It is a major blow for the citizens.

both countries believe that the unique operational advantages of cryptocurrency such as their high level of anonymity can facilitate illegal activity. Other concerns include significant losses from the general public as a result of fraudsters offering "style pyramid investment schemes" that promise high returns. As a result of the "ambiguous nature of the virtual currency," the government also offers no protection or assistance to individuals who suffer losses due to extreme price instability or hacking and security compromise of cryptocurrency exchanges and purses.

These are not the reason behind it that RBI statement,even government released anything about crypto currency ban so still it is not illegal in India and they have three months for deadline to stop dealing with crypto currencies.So still the trading are happening and it will continue to happen even if the banks stopped dealing with exchanges because there are still some other ways available to cashout.

Hard to tell what news is real or not as some headlines of this so-called news media often mislead the public, take a look at this one (https://themarketmogul.com/india-cryptocurrency-regulation/) title "Cryptocurrency in India: Beginning of the End?" just reading the headline will make you think that India will soon ban everything related to cryptocurrency but what it really happening is they only banned the transfer of money from banks to your cryptocurrency wallets or vice versa, which we all know we have several more ways in funding and also liquidating our cryptocurrencies. We don't need to worry on something that is not real like this one as it is just creating panic in the market.

Actually I think this is a bad thing done by India and Pakistan, should they support bitcoin currency to be easier because we know that bitcoin has many benefits for the wider community.

As far as I know, the trading of Bitcoin to fiat is not a criminal offense in either Pakistan or India. But here in Nepal, it is a criminal offense and the cops arrested a few traders last year for dealing in BTC.

It's your own fault. In elections, you vote for politicians who then form a government. Can you make sense to create a party of fans of cryptocurrencies and in the next elections to bring to power those who will change the law? Otherwise, you will follow with envy how bitcoin will conquer the world. When the ban will be lifted you will be buying bitcoin at $ 100,000.

I think the Indian state and Indian society are less timely entering the bitcoin market and so many are experiencing price declines and are disappointed with bitcoin.

Mate, is not that easy to give such approval. We have virtually have no government that I know of that has given such approval yet. I don't know how far it is with Japan though.

Someday India and Pakistan will accept the crypto and will not ban the bitcoin anymore, and I think it's just a matter of time to understand the world of cryptocurrency and I hope it does not last long.

So sad news for everybody from these countries who is eager to invest in BTC and any other cryptocurrencies.

I really feel bad for India and Pakistan governments but proud of their citizens. The citizens are far better adapting current generation and moving into crypto world thinking crypto would certainly enrich their lives.  But the ones who lead the respected governments are not worth enough to even lead the country. How can we trust in their decision. There should be a complete change or at least to the fact,  there should be educated personalities leading the country.  Just understand where the problem is with.