On August 2, Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance said that the government would decide on the proposals on the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the legislative proposal and cryptos, if any, would be tabled in Parliament after the due process.

In its reports, a high-level IMC had recommended that all private cryptos, except any crypto issued by the State, be banned in India.

Under the chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs), IMC was constituted to study the problems associated with virtual crypto.

He continued that in the Budget Speech for 2018-2019, it was declared that ‘the Government doesn’t consider crypto coin a legal tender and will take all steps to abolish the use of these crypto-assets as a part of the payment system or in financing illegal activities. The Government will explore the use of blockchain technology for assisting in the digital economy.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, on July 27 informed Rajya Sabha that the government doesn’t gather data on a count of crypto investors and exchanges in the country.

She said this in response to a query on crypto by former Bihar deputy CM and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi.

As per information from crypto exchanges, there are around 1.5 crore Indians who have invested in cryptos holding worth Rs. 15,000 crore with more and more people initiating to invest. There are 350 startups that work in the crypto and blockchain world.