Hope there will be more consultations around cryptocurrency bill: Nischal Shetty, WazirX

• Follow

The government has listed a bill in Parliament providing for the banning of all cryptocurrencies. In an interview with Money9, Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX, talks what the new Bill means for crypto investors.

Edited excerpts:

Q. Will the bill give clarity on the future of cryptocurrencies in India?

This is definitely a positive move forward. If you remember in 2019, there was a draft Bill that spoke about banning of cryptocurrencies, this time the name of the business is regulating cryptocurrencies. I think that’s a good thing forward. The title of the bill shows promise. And there’s also a couple of description around the Bill. The first part says that the RBI wants to create its own digital currency. So again it is in a very positive direction.

The second part talks about banning private cryptocurrencies, with some exceptions. I would say, there’s debate right now on what exactly are private currencies. And what exactly will be allowed and not allowed. This will be clear once the Bill gets presented.

Q. There is confusion around what is private currency and what is public currency. Can you elucidate the current situation? 

Nischal: This term private cryptocurrency is not really a term that is used in the crypto ecosystem globally or in India anywhere. For example, Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, is more like a public cryptocurrency on a public blockchain and it is not owned by any one company to be called as a private cryptocurrency. So the definition of private cryptocurrency will have to be seen and how exactly this is defined. And then probably we’ll have more clarity. There’s a lot of debate around this whole term itself that the government has said and nobody knows what exactly private cryptocurrencies mean.

Q. What does this move mean for those who have invested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Nischal: I’m not sure if this will be presented. But even if it is presented, I believe that a bill of this significance might be moved to the Standing Committee for a further discussion because the most important factor is that the crypto industry has not been consulted at all.

I believe there will be more consultations. For example, if there is indeed a negative connotation to this whole Bill, I think the government will definitely have to come up with some way. There are are at least 7 million people in India who own some cryptocurrency and the valuations of these cryptocurrencies in India is a billion dollars. So it’s not a small amount. So, we will be looking forward to what the government has in mind.

Q. Do you consider the introduction of this Bill as a positive move forward?

Nischal: Definitely as this is a completely unregulated market and that creates a lot of problems even for us to run a business. So I think any clarity from the comment is always a positive move. This also means that we can now start a dialogue.

We can now help the government in formulating the regulation. This is something that we have seen in other countries also. So there are countries where they have started working on the bill it’s been presented, but it’s not being passed. Why? Because there will always be a lot of debate around. And I think now we can hope for new debates around this bill. I am pretty confident that India will regulate it positively. This is a positive move.