Check out the below article to know if cryptocurrencies are widely adopted in India
Investments in unregulated digital assets, particularly Bitcoin, have shown a stunning upward trend since 2020, despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of cryptocurrencies in India. More than 1.5 to 2 crore Indians, according to data from various domestic cryptocurrency exchanges, have invested in the asset class, which reached the US$10 billion mark in November of this year. The developing number of cryptographic money adopters recommends a change in the speculation worldview in the country that is known to put all the more habitually in gold and other more secure resources. Let’s take a look at how the virtual asset has developed thus far before the much-anticipated Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill is introduced.
The excursion of digital currency began with the distribution of a paper named “Bitcoin: A Shared Electronic Money Framework” in 2008 by a pseudonymous designer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.
After two years, the main offer of a thing utilizing Bitcoin occurred with somebody trading 10,000 Bitcoin for two pizzas. For the first time, this gave cryptocurrencies a value in dollars. Before adequately long, other cryptographic forms of money, such as Litecoin, Namecoin, and Swiftcoin, started to arise and the advanced resource began gaining momentum.
As crypto speculations got in India as well and trades including Zebpay, Pocket Pieces, Coinsecure, Koinex, and Unocoin started jumping up, the Save Bank of India (RBI) gave a round of advance notice to clients of the potential security-related changes relating to the utilization of virtual monetary standards in 2013.
The expansions in inclination for computerized installments achieved by the demonetization try likewise gave an accidental lift to crypto ventures, driving educated clients to the virtual resource. The Indian Reserve Bank (RBI) issued another circular in 2017 to express its concerns regarding virtual coins after Indian banks continued to allow transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges. At last, an advance notice explaining that virtual monetary forms are not a lawful delicate was given by the RBI and the money service toward the finish of 2017.
The Central Board of Digital Tax (CBDT) sent the finance ministry a draft plan to ban virtual currencies in March 2018. About a month later, the RBI issued a circular prohibiting banks, NBFCs, and payment system providers from dealing with virtual currencies and providing services to virtual currency exchanges. Cryptocurrency exchanges suffered greatly as a result, and trading volumes decreased by 99%.
On the first of November 2018, a decade after Nakamoto’s paper, Nischal Shetty, Organizer behind WazirX, began the #IndiaWantsCrypto lobby for the positive guideline of crypto in India. The earliest effect was seen when the mission got a positive reaction from Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a sitting Rajya Sabha MP. Celebrities like Unocoin’s Sathvik Vishwanath, Polygon’s co-founder Jaynti Kanani, a well-known entrepreneur and investor Anthony Pompliano, and DJ Nikhil Chinapa later joined the campaign. During the budget session in February, when the crypto bill was announced, Nischal’s unrelenting tweets and support for the campaign garnered widespread recognition, with the hashtag trending on Twitter at the time. As of late, in July 2021, #IndiaWantsCrypto finished 1000 days and the mission is as yet continuing forward with Nischal’s tweets and lakhs of other crypto fans going along with it in its course.
Crypto exchanges filed a writ petition with the Supreme Court, and the ban was ultimately struck down, declaring the RBI circular unconstitutional. The ban was a significant setback.
As a result, cryptocurrency exchanges came back to life, and the Supreme Court’s decision came just in time for the crypto boom.
The Indian government announced on January 29, 2021, that it would introduce a bill to establish a sovereign digital currency and then prohibit all private cryptocurrencies. The Standing Committee on Finance met with the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC) and other representatives of cryptocurrencies in November 2021 and concluded that cryptocurrencies ought to be regulated rather than banned. Toward the beginning of December 2021, the Head of the state Narendra Modi likewise led a gathering on digital forms of money with senior authorities.
