Looks like India is perhaps serious about banning cryptocurrency

[bitgolden]

This is not the first time they are doing it. Right from the case with personal computers in 1980s, to internet in 1990s, the Indian government has taken a regressive view on new innovations. When internet first became popular in the 1990s, the Indian government tried their best to hinder the growth in their jurisdiction by imposing all sort of restrictions and regulations. The issue is very simple and straightforward. Most of the Indian politicians (and this is especially true with the case of ruling party politicians), don't have the skills or intelligence to understand new innovations.

And in the end, this is what happens:

I do not think that 25 billion would be coming from USA, sure there are a lot of people who are into bitcoin but not every single bitcoin owner will be buying bitcoin with their stimulus check, many of them are not making the same amount of money and many of them are doing horrible so they will use that money instead. I think 10 billion will be max we can get, and I believe even 1 billion will be more than enough for all of us.

Also about India, it is important to have Indian community with us, doesn't matter how much, there are nations that are much much smaller than India and even those nations should be kept, this is a worldwide currency and ignoring a whole nation would not be alright for us, it would hurt us all. I hope that we end up with promoting it everywhere and would be supported by governments and make a profit all together at the same time without exception.

[Shasha80]

I am feel sad for the crypto community in India to know that the Indian government is planning to ban cryptocurrency. Even though the crypto
community from India is quite a lot, I believe that Indian residents can still buy and sell cryptocurrency. As we all know that no single country
can control cryptocurrency,  as long as crypto users can still access the internet there is always a way to make crypto transactions. So in my opinion,
it's useless for the Indian government to ban cryptocurrencies, it's better if they support crypto.

[Theb]

It looks like the ban on cryptocurrencies is a real thing that could happen now even Reuters made an article with an interview on a Indian government official about how real the crypto ban will be, he said that even holding/possession of cryptocurrencies would be considered as a criminal act in the country. With the crypto ban having a high chance of happening in that country I will be worried about the short term effect it will lead in the crypto market, once the ban is issued I'm sure the government will given them time/duration to liquidate their cryptocurrencies this period can cause a sell-off in the market as well FUD as a bad news like this one which also has a direct affect in the market can be disastrous for the market.

[Om.monata]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

it seems like this will be a big issue in the world if India bans, the crypto community in India is very large but this seems to be the government banning crypto. So I think right now there must be a real solution for the Indian government in this regard, because clearly the crypto ban is likely to raise pros and cons in India.

[thecodebear]

$1.2 billion in Bitcoin in India vs. potentially ~$25 billion coming in from US stimmy checks... https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/stimulus-checks-bitcoin-btc-stock-market-outlook-mizuho-says-2021-3-1030207913

$25 billion boost from the stimulus cheques is going to be huge. At the same time, it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cryptocurrency sector in India. There are 10-20 million active users there, and they hold around 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap (~$50 billion). Obviously the numbers are not as big as what they have in the US or EU, but $50 billion isn't a small figure either.

Where are you getting those numbers?  That's a lot more than the $1.2 billion codebear cited.

The number i cited came from the latest article that I read where an Indian government official said the ban is likely to happen. I don't know how they came up with the $1.2 billion figure though.

Bryant.coleman's statement of 3-4% of the market cap seems like it's way too high. India has never been a major player in bitcoin, in fact crypto was even banned i believe for a little bit like last year before the supreme court ruled the ban unconstitutional, or maybe they ruled against it before the ban was put in place, not sure. But anyways, I doubt India's stake of bitcoin is anywhere near 3-4%. Googling the subject I just found an estimate from January that Indians likely own less than 1% of Bitcoin, 1% seems like a much more reasonable estimate than 3-4%.

If they own 1% of the market, and the India ban does happen, supposedly they'll have a 6 month grace period to get rid of their crypto. Given that we are in the main part of a bull run, it'd make sense for them to gradually sell as the price goes up and not just sell as soon as the ban is passed. Now, other markets might dump on the news, but I doubt an India ban would have a drastic effect on the market. US adoption is what is driving the market right now, India is barely an afterthought in the market. At most it might result in a short dip buying opportunity for people. Still, for the sake of the Indian people and their country in general, hopefully their politicians aren't stupid and corrupt enough to ban the people's access to an economic freedom tech like Bitcoin.

[Febo]

Looks like India is perhaps serious about banning cryptocurrency

I was watching this yesterday. Free To Choose 1980 - Vol. 02 The Tyranny of Control https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWgNe8v6KFc  . In it it shows one crazyness India did after WW2. You should watch it and see for yourself.
It is totally possible that India and some other countries ban cryptocurrencies. By doing that they will just stay behind in development. Many smart Indian people will move abroad where crypto will not be banned.

[stompix]

This and the bans that follow will be looked at in a years time as the catalyst to the destruction of cryptocurrency. I've confirmed this with many math calculations

Common, just stop it, it's been 8 years, get over it.

There are multiple threads in this forum dealing with this topic. You can visit them to keep updated about the subject.

Seems like nobody can keep up with whatever passes through their heads each morning.
At least China was playing this game once a year and there was easy to see what they were aiming for in the final stage, with India, this is more like gambling with tossing coins, on a boat, 70% of the time you won't be able to know the outcome at all.  

$25 billion boost from the stimulus cheques is going to be huge. At the same time, it will be a big mistake to underestimate the cryptocurrency sector in India. There are 10-20 million active users there, and they hold around 3% to 4% of the total cryptocurrency market cap (~$50 billion). Obviously the numbers are not as big as what they have in the US or EU, but $50 billion isn't a small figure either.

Define active users!
Because if we go by all the claims on how many people you have active in crypto in all countries you end u with more than all the transactions in all the chains that are active right now. 20 million? And before you quote any article, make sure this is not a PR claim by some CEO of an Indian exchange that only throw numbers around to promote his business.

I do not think that 25 billion would be coming from USA, sure there are a lot of people who are into bitcoin but not every single bitcoin owner will be buying bitcoin with their stimulus check, many of them are not making the same amount of money and many of them are doing horrible so they will use that money instead. I think 10 billion will be max we can get, and I believe even 1 billion will be more than enough for all of us.

That's already counted in the survey, remember it's 25 billion out of 380 billion in direct stimulus checks, only 5% of the first batch.

[tygeade]

I think it is obvious that any nation that completely bans bitcoin would be shooting themselves in the foot, we are talking about a nation that has managed to overcome all digital problems that they faced and I can promise you that they will do that again, which is why if it is completely illegal, they would just switch to P2P type services and handle it, plus there are other nations now that allows you to start a bank account, at the very worst case people would open an account in that nation, get a card and they will be putting their crypto in exchange and withdraw to that bank and just use it in India as a foreign bank credit card, that's like the worst possible situation, even then there is solution.

This is why I think government will soon realize that they can't ban it, and regulations are not that horrible, as long as it is not harsh regulations I am fine with that, but it needs to make sense.

[ene1980]

it seems like this will be a big issue in the world if India bans, the crypto community in India is very large but this seems to be the government banning crypto. So I think right now there must be a real solution for the Indian government in this regard, because clearly the crypto ban is likely to raise pros and cons in India.

I have no idea about the impact of India in the cryptocurrency space, i understand they have a huge population but that does not mean anything. If the government bans it will affect the investors and they need to find a solution to trade and P2P is an option which i know is popular when the exchanges were forced to shut down couple of years ago.

[wheelz1200]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

Sucks for people in India honestly but as far as the price of bitcoin unless there was a world ban on it (lol) the price won't be as affected as it used to be when China kept banning and unbending bitcoin.  Its too widestretch now I think for one country to have a large effect.

[magneto]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

And why does the RBI/government think that banning crypto is going to work at all?

This has been tried and tested over a range of countries to no avail. I think that we can safely conclude at this point that it is simply impossible for a ban of a completely decentralised network to be enforceable.

Having the legislation on paper is one thing, and restricting actual access is another.

As you said, I wouldn't expect this to be much of a factor when it comes to BTC's price action both in the short and long run. People are used to this stuff happening, and BTC is designed to be a hedge against fiat anyhow.

[DarkIT]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

India was a good and standard market for the goods and products. Same concept was worked for the bitcoin also. During corona, huge people in India was suffered for food. But I don't know, where such guys had a money to inverse in bitcoin at the market gap of 58-60k$.Still now bitcoin was a legal one from my knowledge. If the bill passed against this, their maybe fluctuations.

[Hippocrypto]

~snip~

It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

That's only possible ban of cryptocurrency, and I guess this stories was just a part of FUD attempts coming from giant holders who also lived in this country. If we have to think on the fairness of the situation, they won't allow their society to adopt it at first but how come this time when price rapidly increasing there's a banning speculations.
There's no confirmed truth on this idea, and I guess they're only trying to deceive small holders in order to be anxious over fake news.

[el kaka22]

I have no idea about the impact of India in the cryptocurrency space, i understand they have a huge population but that does not mean anything. If the government bans it will affect the investors and they need to find a solution to trade and P2P is an option which i know is popular when the exchanges were forced to shut down couple of years ago.

There are many options for people who would like to still use crypto, considering how it would be impossible to track everyone's accounts and moves, I am sure that it will be quite difficult to make people come out and say that they still own bitcoin, they will try but they will fail. And that is only if they make it completely illegal, like even owning it would be illegal, in that case I am sure other methods will get more popular and problem will be solved.

The problem with not caring how much money India promotes is the fact that bitcoin was created so that we would be out of governments hands and do whatever we want without them ruining bitcoin, which they can't, only regulate it, but if we as whole bitcoin community act as if India doesn't matter, that would make us not really different from governments that only care about the rich and not for the poor and cause us to flee to bitcoin.

[bryant.coleman]

Define active users!
Because if we go by all the claims on how many people you have active in crypto in all countries you end u with more than all the transactions in all the chains that are active right now. 20 million? And before you quote any article, make sure this is not a PR claim by some CEO of an Indian exchange that only throw numbers around to promote his business.

Indian exchanges do have very strict KYC requirements. 8 million users have undergone this KYC process in order to register to various Indian exchanges. If someone is undergoing this rigorous KYC process, then in all probability he is an active user IMO. And from what I have seen, due to the hostility from the authorities the majority of the users are not using exchanges. Rather than that, they trade using P2P platforms. As per my estimate, there are 4 users who use P2P platforms and global exchanges, for every user registered with the Indian exchanges. So my conservative estimate would be 20 million users in India.

There is always a chance of the exchange owners inflating the number of users, but the trade volume and ground reports support these claims. Before the pandemic, I was a regular visitor to India, and I have seen cryptocurrency users in the most remote corners of that country. And now, according to my friends cryptocurrency is much more popular when compared to the situation two years back.

[adzino]

It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

Your government isn't going to be the first one then. I have seen very few other countries that have banned bitcoin. I am just wondering, how are they going to ban it? It is almost impossible to do so. There is no way they can track each  and every citizen who are using bitcoin (unless banks are involved). So even if they do ban bitcoin, won't you guys be able to do P2P trading like the way bitcoin was supposed to be traded?

[stompix]

And before you quote any article, make sure this is not a PR claim by some CEO of an Indian exchange that only throws numbers around to promote his business.

Indian exchanges do have very strict KYC requirements. 8 million users have undergone this KYC process in order to register to various Indian exchanges.

As per my estimate, there are 4 users who use P2P platforms and global exchanges, for every user registered with the Indian exchanges. So my conservative estimate would be 20 million users in India.

How do I put this...
Exactly why I've been talking about it, exchanges claiming they have million of users.

There is always a chance of the exchange owners inflating the number of users, but the trade volume and ground reports support these claims.

Hmm, Wazirx is doing $76.691.478, Binance $72.358.046.448.
So, if in India there are 20 million users then worldwide there must be 20 billion users.
I have a feeling something is wrong with this one...

[molsewid]

it seems like this will be a big issue in the world if India bans, the crypto community in India is very large but this seems to be the government banning crypto. So I think right now there must be a real solution for the Indian government in this regard, because clearly the crypto ban is likely to raise pros and cons in India.

Looks like India was the first country that were going to declare for ban of cryptocurrency that u have known so far and this will definitely a big issue in case happen. As i do hope that it won't great affect the bitcoin market since bitcoin was now in great growth of market. So far we haven't heard a serious case that cryptocurrency was a threat to the economy of one nation and in fact some nation are considering crypto as a good investment.

[worle1bm]

They are issuing different statement each day and it seems like different officials are carrying their own individual boats and nothing is clear at all.The bill is is final stages but still has not been presented in the current session of parliament.But Indian government would not go with terrible decsions of banning usage of all forms of Cryptocurrencies which will have them suffer loss in return.So let's wait for the actual announcement and hope for best as India accounts for highest amount of crypto trading in Asia as demand of Bitcoin is at premium in India.

[KryptoKings]

Just read an article where an official says they expect the crypto ban to be passed, despite other officials recently downplaying the likelihood of it.

India is becoming quite an oppressive government from a monetary standpoint. Giant leap backwards for them if they pass the bill. Won't hurt Bitcoin too much - apparently there's only about $1.2 billion of bitcoin held in India (about a dollars worth for every citizen). If they do ban cryptos it just means that one day when they ultimately reverse that ban we're gonna get a huge pump from a billion-plus people suddenly having access to Bitcoin, by which time Bitcoin will likely be far more engrained throughout the rest of the world.


It's crazy to think about a government actually making it illegal, acting like you are some terrible criminal, simply for holding a digital asset. I guess other smaller nations have done this, but India would be the first major nation if it indeed passes. The idea of banning bitcoin is a great litmus test on how much economic freedom a nation has - and if you ban it you are a terribly monetarily oppressive nation.

Thoughts on the possible India crypto ban?

I don't think it will happen in near future. Some media house deliberately publishing fake news and attributing it to reliable anonymous sources
Government will not out a blanket ban on crytpo as they know it is not possible to ban it.
They will come up with some face saving solution that's why they have postponed the bill till monsoon session.