India Told to Stop Discrimination Against Crypto Startups

It is no longer news that the Indian government, especially the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has strictly shown no interest in cryptocurrency; hence, they disapprove crypto-related activities amid rumors of an imminent official ban.

But the regulators took it a step further when it announced last month that it would exclude startups working on cryptocurrency-related products from its newly proposed fintech regulatory sandbox.

Precisely, the sandbox would exclude ICOs, exchanges and any startup working on a digital-asset related product.

Is there a more fierce way to restrict the growth of the Indian cryptocurrency ecosystem?

Well, today’s report by Economic Times has spelled new hope for startups in the country.

India’s tech industry lobby groups in response to the proposal by the RBI asked the regulators to enable crypto startups to take part in the sandbox. For the basics, Sandboxes are mostly employed by many regulators in the world to conduct tests on innovations.

Indian IT Industry Reacts to Crypto Exclusion

Nasscom, a trade association of player in the Indian IT sector, said in the report that the reason for the RBI deciding to exclude crypto startups from the purview of the regulatory sandbox is still not evident.

Pointing out the fact that other international regulators allow crypto startups in their sandbox, Nasscom expressed concern that such a rigid approach by the RBI will hinder innovation in India.

Instead of a ban based on grounds that the young industry poses a lot of risks, Nasscom suggested that enabling crypto startups to take part in the regulatory sandbox would help Indian regulators get to know better about the risks.

Another IT lobby group, Payments Council of India (PCI) echoed thoughts shared by Nasscom when it said that with these significant exclusions in the RBI’s Sandbox, innovation can hardly be achieved.

“Ideally, they shouldn’t have such large exclusions,” the organization’s Chairman Naveen Surya added.