India is likely making a big mistake considering a ban on crypto any further given that it’s people really seem to love the industry.
India Has an Odd Relationship with Crypto
Swati Daga is a businesswoman in India that first bought bitcoin in the year 2017. This was at a time when the currency was trading for under $3K. Her family did everything they could to try and convince her that investing her hard-earned cash in BTC or any other form of crypto was a bad idea, but something in her gut said otherwise, and she purchased the world’s number one digital currency by market cap against her family’s wishes.
In a recent interview, she stated:
The elders in my family told me not to throw my money away.
At 33 years of age, she says it was one of the best decisions she’s ever made. She purchased the crypto and held onto it. Since then, bitcoin’s value has increased by more than 15 times, and she continues to hold as much as ten percent of her savings in digital assets, primarily BTC and ETH. She also says that she finds crypto much more exciting than stocks, which she described in her interview as “boring.”
In a recent survey, India ranked only behind Vietnam in 2021 as the country with the most crypto progress. It is estimated at press time that India houses roughly 20 million crypto users and traders.
Sumit Gupta – CEO and co-founder of crypto exchange Coin DCX – says that many millennials in India are particularly attracted to crypto. He commented that while their parents still prefer gold and precious metals, younger generations are leaning towards the privacy and autonomy that they allegedly get with bitcoin and its cousins.
Given the size and scope of the industry, Gupta says he is all for regulating the space and even imposing certain taxes on trades, though he is against banning it in any way given how popular and strong it has become in just the last few years alone. He stated:
Taxation of virtual digital assets or crypto is a step in the right direction. It gives much-needed clarity and confidence to the industry.
What Will Be Decided?
India boasts one of the most up-and-down relationships with cryptocurrency. It appears regulators can’t get their head around it and they’ve been going back and forth regarding a crypto ban for several months. It was initially proposed not too long ago that crypto be declared a whole new financial industry in India and that it be regulated as such. It was even stated that the nation was going to develop a digital version of the rupee, it’s native currency.
However, others are arguing that the only way to keep India’s financial systems in order is to invoke a full-on ban of crypto and all related activity.