Supreme Court Legalises Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency Trading In India

It’s finally the time to cheer for India’s cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts! On Wednesday, March 4, a three-judge bench ruled in favor of the petitions filed by crypto startups and exchanges who demanded lifting the ban on crypto trading.

With this, India will be ending its two-year-long ban on cryptocurrency trading introduced by the India’s central bank – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – back in April 2018. The ban prevented all the regulated banks and financial institutions to get themselves associated with virtual digital currency service providers.

The RBI had reasoned its ban as move essential to curb “ring-fencing” of the country’s economic and financial system. Besides, the central bank also argued that Bitcoin or other public cryptocurrencies can’t be considered as currencies as they don’t exist in physical form.

The central bank’s decision back then caused several crypto exchanges to shut their shop or to set up their base outside the country. The only model on which crypto exchanges were allowed to operate was crypto-to-crypto trading or over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

This choked the influx of cash coming from banks to the exchanges thus getting retail players out of the game.

…continues on this website.