India’s finance minister rules out Bitcoin as legal tender

What

India’s Finance Minister Sitharaman says central government has no plans to accept Bitcoin as legal tender in the country

Why

The standpoint of the Indian government is that because cryptocurrencies are not issued by sovereign states but rather private enterprises that lack intrinsic value

What next

The ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021’ is set to be introduced during the winter session, outlawing most cryptocurrencies

The Story

The Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reaffirmed that the country’s government has no intention of introducing Bitcoin as legal tender in the country.

The central government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce its ‘Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’ during the Winter session of parliament, which will effectively ban cryptocurrency trading in the country, with a few exceptions.

According to the BrokerChooser website, more than 100 million Indians have cryptocurrency holdings, far ahead of the second-largest holder, the USA, with around 27 million holders. Nevertheless, the ruling parties have taken a hard line on cryptocurrency use, following the idea that as none of them are issued by sovereign countries, they are not ‘true’ currencies, and therefore are private enterprises with no intrinsic value.

In exchange the bill may set out a framework for the country’s national reserve bank to establish its own digital currency which would be open for trading in India.

To discover more about Bitcoin and its applications, visit our Learning portal.