India’s Supreme Court Will Not Lift RBI Crypto Ban

Published 5 years ago on July 03, 2018

India’s Supreme Court Will Not Lift RBI Crypto Ban

It finally seems as if a decision has been made by India’s Supreme Court regarding the recent cryptocurrency ban established by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).India’s Central Bank, the RBI, established a cryptocurrency ban a few months ago which detailed that it’s customers could not have any engagement with cryptocurrency. In doing so, users could have their accounts closed and taken off them. Of course, this caused absolute uproar and resulted mass protest online. As a result of this, the high court decided to get involved to weigh up both the legality of the RBI’s decision and of course, the claims made by the RBI. Today however, according to a report by Quartz (India), the RBI’s decision still stands, this time with the backing of the Supreme Court.A court hearing took place yesterday, headed by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, a firm that includes membership of a number of cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Kali Digital. According to Quartz, Rashmi Deshpande, an associate from legal firm Khaitan & Co, the firm representing Kali Digital has said:“This a win for the RBI and a big blow to virtual currency exchanges and traders. In our earlier request to the RBI as well, we had asked it to extend the deadline by a month after the July 20 hearing. However, now that the ban will continue, the banking route for the exchanges and its users will be completely choked.”Moreover, the Secretary from the Department of Economic Affairs, Subhash Chandra Garg has said:

“We have prepared a draft (on virtual currencies) that entails what parts of this businesses should be banned and what should be preserved. This should be discussed by the first week of July and we should wrap this up within in the first fortnight of July.”

See more from Quartz, for yourself, here- https://qz.com/1319985/rbi-ban-on-indias-cryptocurrency-exchanges-will-remain-top-court-rules/What does all of this mean?Clearly, Deshpande believes that this could very well be the end of the line for cryptocurrency exchanges in India. Eventually, we could see total control of crypto handed to the RBI, when this happens, the currency will be deemed fully illegal. Whilst the RBI cannot make laws, im sure their advice will go on to ensure that such laws are drafted. Likewise, this is reflected in the statement made by Chandra Garg in that, they look to be working on determining some new regulations in the coming days and weeks.As it stands though, we can’t really guess the full scale of these regulations, therefore for now, we are going to have to wait and see what happens.Overall, this is very bad news for cryptocurrencies in India. As a nation with a firm grip on the blockchain and on blockchain technology, it is a shame to see that this decision has been made. On the other hand, maybe this will inspire the community to come together to try and make a difference? Who knows. Investment Disclaimer

Adrian Barkley

Adrian is an avid reader who first stumbled across Crypto after reading 'The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains' by Antony Lewis in 2018. Since then, Adrian has immersed himself within the industry, and has a real interest in Enterprise Blockchain solutions.