Zinger Key Points
- A cryptocurrency or web3 legislation bill is farfetched, according to one politician.
- There are three specific considerations for a crypto-specific bill which India has to examine before passing a bill.
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Despite reporting 28 crypto service providers in India, the country is yet to take the big leap in introducing legislation for cryptocurrencies or Web3.
What Happened: Jayant Sinha, Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance in India's Parliament, and a Minister of Parliament from the ruling party in India (BJP) said that India is unlikely to bring a crypto or Web3-specific legislative bill anytime soon and perhaps up to mid of 2025.
At the India Blockchain Week in Bengaluru, Sinha quoted to CoinDesk, “Regulators and policymakers are responsible, not just on the innovation side, which of course we want to encourage, but also on the safety side. We have to really find that balance and that balance is going to evolve over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Read More: India's Supreme Court Dismisses Petition Seeking Government Guidelines For Crypto
Meanwhile, India already has anti-money laundering rules and a tax structure for crypto in place. It also seeks to align with the Financial Stability Board's recommendations by end-2025.
This week, the Indian government revealed that 28 crypto service providers are currently registered with the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The Indian Finance Ministry states that entities dealing in virtual digital assets, including crypto exchanges and intermediaries, are considered ”reporting entities” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Why Does It Matter: Highlighting three specific considerations for a crypto-specific bill, he points to evolving use cases in the space, the evolution of global standards amid 2024 being the election year in India, the U.S., and potentially the U.K., and the emerging reality of industry evolution post FTX collapse and the regulatory action against Binance.
Sinha adds, “But crypto friends is just one-use case for what is a revolutionary set of technologies that underlie Web3.”
He goes on to say that while Singapore, Korea or the U.S. have freely tradable currencies and can introduce crypto smoothly, for India it must be a very cautious approach as even the rupee is not freely available to trade.
Read Next: This Indian Province Is Embracing Web3 - How Digital Nomads, Remote Workers Benefit
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