The CEO of Zebpay, one of the largest exchanges in India, estimates that 40,000 bitcoins (BTC) will be at risk if India decides to ban cryptocurrencies in a definitive manner.
The good news is that Ajeet Khurana does not think that this will have an effect on the long-term value of BTC. Several Indian legal cases have shown that the government will introduce a draft law regarding the ban on bitcoin (BTC) at the parliamentary session in December/January.
Among these anti-crypto laws, there are some that involve different sanctions for bitcoin (BTC) holders or traders. Mining will also become an illegal activity. The maximum period of imprisonment is 10 years.
In the petitions praying for Ban or regulation:
Govt. submitted draft regulation before the Court which was submitted to it by Garg Committee.
Govt. requested the Court to adjourn the matter till January as the it intends to introduce the bill in parliament in winter session.
— KoinX (@getkoinx) August 8, 2019
“What is likely to come out is fairly strict regulation. The Government will make available an opportunity for you to exit (cryptocurrency)”.
Zebpay still has 2 million customers in India who are using the custody service of the exchange. However, the possibilities are very limited for local investors who want to turn crypto into fiat and vice versa. People living in India are allowed to transfer up to $250,000 abroad each year.
Zebpay accounted for about two-thirds of all volume generated by exchanges in India and, based on his knowledge, Khurana estimates that the total amount of lawful bitcoins (BTC) amounts to 40,000 (about half a billion dollars). If the dark web is considered, this figure would increase by hundreds of millions.
Khurana himself thinks that selling these BTC would certainly cause enormous downward pressure, but it would be an event that could only affect the short term.
“I think the market has the capacity to absorb a few thousand per day without slippage”.
Zebpay was forced to move to Malta and Australia after India became suspicious of cryptocurrencies and forced the Reserve Bank of India to prohibit banks from working with exchanges.
Before these events, the platform had a daily volume of several million dollars.
“When you’re starting from zero, it’s very easy to grow fast. We decided that for the roughly the next four to six months, we need to double our volumes every month. So we managed that from May to June”.
