India Celebrates Crypto Freedom as Supreme Court Lifts RBI Curb

Today’s date will be marked in the Indian crypto sphere. On March 4th, 2020, the Supreme Court lifted the curbs on exchanges in cryptocurrency imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. The judgment came after a series of hearings challenging RBI’s ban on financial firms or individuals in India from trading in cryptocurrencies.

However, the government has already drafted a bill that seeks to prohibit mining, holding, selling, trade, issuance, disposal or use of cryptocurrency in the country. Moreover, it is worth noting that,  there was no formal ban on cryptocurrencies under any law in existence in India, it had consistently been warning all those dealing with virtual currencies of the risks inherent in them. 

A three-judge bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman, Aniruddha Bose, and V Ramasubramanian delivered the judgment. Also, IMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India ) had argued that the cryptocurrency was more in the nature of the commodity than “currency” in the strict sense. Moreover,  RBI does not have powers to impose such a ban in the absence of a law in that regard prohibiting cryptocurrency. 

Will the Indian Crypto Startup Boom?

At present, the whole Indian crypto sphere is rejoicing with the sigh of relief. Many influencers are sharing their view on social media. Director Of Technology at Tokenyz Ventures, Benson Samuel, said that  “It’s a very positive sign that has come through, something that we have been waiting for and expecting for two years now. Most of the infrastructure and bits and pieces towards the cryptocurrency was already built out over the last few years.” 

He also sees many of the companies that halted their operations due to RBI’s circular coming back in the business. He further added, “We should see a lot of them restarting and a lot more activity happening around this space.” 

In the recent interview, WazirX founder Nischal Shetty told that this is a historic day.

He claims now, anyone who wants to start a cryptocurrency startup — exchange, smart contracts — can do it easily. Shetty expects the crypto market to have over 100 startups along with VC investments, better jobs and a real contribution to the economy. Speaking about the cryptocurrency startups in India that had to shut down due to unclear rules, the WazirX founder said that many of them could launch back thanks to this clarity. Moreover, Shetty now wants to work with the regulators to create a better framework and also work towards improving the presentation in the draft cryptocurrency bill.

Nischal Shetty Interview with India Ahead

Interviewer : When the RBI issued the circular 2 years back, what doubts did RBI have about cryptocurrency trading?

Nischal : The biggest worry was the financial system affected negatively due to cryptocurrency, and there were also worries about money laundering and KYC. But the crypto ecosystem has dealt with this by following the right process.  This was one of the arguments that despite the fears, the cryptosystem has taken measures against money-laundering. 

The other issue was, there will be an underground economy created that will be hard to be regulated. Now that the ban has been lifted, one can work with the RBI rather than against them to formulate the right regulation for Crypto in India. This is what we are looking forward to.  It is not about us against RBI. It is about finding the common ground to create a right crypto framework in India. 

Interviewer : What is the judgement that has crypto space excited?

Nischal :RBI circular ban that levied in 2018 has been made unconstitutional and this is what we are fighting for. The biggest outcome of this judgement is that all startups in India can innovate without fearing bank developments. This means you will see hundreds of new startups in the crypto space in India. This also will lead to a lot more job opportunities. We are all thrilled about this outcome. A lot of people are saying that democracy has won in India because of judgement like this. 

Interviewer : How has the crypto community reacted to this judgement? How do you think it will boost the Indian startup given the fact that the crypto community will be able to come in the market with full force?

Nischal : After the RBI circular ban, a lot of exchanges had to shutdown in the country. Many had to move out. Now that the circular has been termed unconstitutional, we can operate with the bank. The crypto industry in India was operating without a bank which is very hard for the startup. Now all crypto-related startups can have a bank account. You cam see global countries like UK Us have 100s of crypto startups in different aspects which Inda never thought of. Now, this circular has been struck off, I can bet that a lot more crypto startups will spring up and will boost the crypto investments in India.

Crypto Twitter Rejoicing the Judgement

Within a short span of time, crypto Twitter saw a surge of tweets. Influencers and followers alike flooded Twitter with crypto tweets applauding the judgment. The result was such that #cryptocurrency started trending at 2nd position. 

Founder of popular cryptocurrency Exchange, Binance claimed that “We look forward to supporting our partners Wazirx India and empowering 3 Billion people with the freedom of money”

Atul Khekade, the founder of XinFin, said that “XinFin and TradeFinex is here to help institutions who have been considering blockchain cryptocurrency for use cases such as remittance and trade finance”

Well- known Indian crypto influencer, tweeted claiming “Next time when someone tells you “Isn’t Crypto illegal in India?” You can proudly say, NO. Cryptocurrency is NOT and has NEVER been illegal in India.

WazirX Token Prices Shoot Up 

Naturally, the WazirX token has shot up in price, rising 45% over the past 24 hours holding 302 position. Currently, the token is trading at $0.108497 USD.  In terms of BTC and BNB, the token has raised up to 0.00001231 BTC (52.70%) and 0.00542983 BNB (51.13%). The market cap value of the token is currently holding $11,653,081 USD. However, it will be interesting to watch for how long the WRX bulls stay in the market. 

What do you think? Will the WRX token will see the moon? 

Final Thoughts 

As for the general cryptocurrency market, it is a bit difficult what impact the news will have. However, there is no doubt that there major investment coming from potential Indian investors who have been on the fence about investing because of the legal uncertainty.