No crypto ban in India: Finance Minister predicts “very calibrated” stance

In an interview with CNBC, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that reports of a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies are overstated. While negotiations are ongoing, she said she expects the end result to be more tempered:

“Yes, a lot of negotiations, discussions are happening, with Reserve Bank,” said Sitharaman. “Obviously the Reserve Bank will be taking a quorum on how, what kind of unofficial currency, cryptocurrency will have to be planned, and how it has to be regulated. But also, we want to make sure that there’s a window available for all kinds of experiments which will have to take place in the crypto world.”

According to Cointelegraph, she also went on to say that regulations won’t be as “severe” as have been previously reported. Authorities will “look inward” and take a “very calibrated” stance, in contrast to the “mixed messages coming in from across the world.”

“The world is moving fast with technology. We can’t pretend that we don’t want it. […] I can only give you this clue: that we are not closing our minds, we are certainly looking at ways in which experimentations can happen in the digital world, in cryptocurrency and so on.”