“There is no ban on Bitcoin and crypto exchanges in India”. This is directly confirmed by the Indian Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India aka RBI.
In a new memo, the RBI had to reconfirm the free purchase and exchange of BTC and all crypto assets on the territory.
According to what is quoted in the document, it seems that the real recipients of this news are the Indian banks themselves, which, on the request of citizens, continued to respond that cryptocurrencies were banned.
“It has come to our attention through media reports that certain banks/ regulated entities have cautioned their customers against dealing in virtual currencies by making a reference to the RBI circular … dated April 06, 2018.”
This is the beginning of the current Customer Due Diligence for transactions in Virtual Currencies (VC), signed by RBI, emphasizing attention to this communication, by all commercial and cooperative banks, payment banks, small finance banks, NBFCs and payment system providers.
“Such references to the above circular by banks/ regulated entities are not in order as this circular was set aside by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on March 04, 2020 in the matter of Writ Petition (Civil) No.528 of 2018 (Internet and Mobile Association of India v. Reserve Bank of India).”
Basically, the ban on Bitcoin and crypto in India has not been valid since the very beginning of the pandemic, since March 2020.
Bitcoin and crypto ban attempts in India
The current revelation and confirmation by the RBI on the non-existent ban in India outweighs even the attempts by the government to want to do so.
In fact, in March 2021, again in India, a bill had been issued to stop the use of crypto throughout the country. A proposal which, however, also thanks to this banking circular of the RBI, seems not to have been approved.
Apparently, in order to make this clear, the problem so far has been the “restrictions” implemented by Indian banks without support from central institutions.
Many customers, in fact, have received warning emails from their banks stating that they are not allowed to use bank accounts or credit cards for cryptocurrency transactions.
So, at the moment, India is not joining the mining bans first declared by China and then, most recently in Iran (in the latter, for four months only).
Despite everything, the price of the queen of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin seems to be holding up, remaining above the $35,000 mark.
