After the arrest of the Chief Executive Officer, Sathvik Vishwanath and Co-founder, B V Harish, cryptocurrencies are again making headlines in India. As per the news published in Businessline, Debjani Ghosh, the President of NASSCOM has reportedly called cryptocurrencies illegal in India.
The arrest was made after the crypto startup, Unocoin opened the first ATM for cryptocurrencies in India. Furthermore, the action was taken as a positive sign in India and was well received in Indian and Global crypto communities.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) along with the help of the State Police ordered for the arrest of the founders of the crypto startup. Moreover, this action was taken following the ATM Kiosk getting sacked, due to alleged lack of permissions from the State Government. Furthermore, the State Government also made the point of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instruction of not doing business with cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Startups Disagree with NASSCOM
Ghosh stated this, “It is law of the land and hence, we have to work with it. If we do not agree, we have to go back to the government and speak about why cryptocurrencies aren’t correct.”
Nischal Shetty, Founder, and CEO of WazirX, India’s most renowned cryptocurrency exchange released a statement disagreeing with the statement.
He said, we first need to verify if the statement was indeed made by the Nasscom president. If true then they need to understand that they’ve made a false statement about cryptocurrencies because there is no law against cryptocurrency in India.
If Nasscom has indeed made this statement then they should release a statement accepting the mistake and acknowledging that crypto isn’t illegal in India. An industry body like Nasscom spreading misinformation in the country is unacceptable. It causes unnecessary harm to the new and fast-growing crypto space in India.
RBI not allowing banking with crypto does not mean crypto is illegal. RBI’s policy is only for the banks that it governs. RBI cannot lay down rules for the People of India.
