Indian Crypto Exchanges Make Collective Effort to Address Government/RBI Concerns

The Indian government as well as the central bank – Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – has been quite inclined on introducing a ban on using crypto assets in India. However, local crypto firms and exchanges and putting their all-out effort to address the concerns that regulators have with crypto assets.

As per the article by Economic Times, Indian crypto exchanges shall be reaching out to top decision-makers including RBI and Finance Minister, ahead this week. As per WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty, India’s Blockchain and Crypto Council are ready with a presentation note.

The note involves details about how to bring fair regulations for digital currencies while addressing the risks associated with them. It also consists of discussion on the matter of cryptocurrency money laundering, the industry’s environmental impact, and the threat crypto assets bring to the financial stability of the Rupee.

Shetty said that they will also be sharing the presentation with the Department of Economic Affair and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

As per the latest developments, the Indian government has set its eyes on corporates and asked them to disclose their crypto holdings. Crypto participation by Indian corporates is likely to bring more hope to retail investors in the country. Nearly 1 crore Indians have invested in crypto assets.

Shetty said that this is the first time that the crypto industry is getting to put its case in from of the government and regulatory authorities.

“Eventually, our hope is that we will be invited where we can present our case formally. But we did not want to wait, we wanted to take a proactive approach,” he said.

Indian Exchanges Having Tough Time Dealing With Regulators

Ever since the RBI banned banks for dealing with crypto firms in 2018, exchanges have been facing tough times to make ends meet. The exchanges quickly ran out of liquidity once banks started to cut ties with them. Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of Unocoin, India’s oldest crypto exchange said that they have tried to reach out to the regulators multiple times over the last few years.

“We have approached different high-level officers at the RBI, but it’s only been a one-way conversation. They were not disclosing what they want. They were receiving our documents so whatever we were trying to say, they were listening to our conversations, but that’s pretty much where it was stopping,” Vishwanath said.

Vishwanath further noted that the Indian crypto exchanges have already started taking self-regulatory measures and started implementing KYC procedures to prohibit and illicit activity.