Government says will be 'progressive and forward-looking' in its approach to cryptocurrencies

Unregulated crypto markets cannot be allowed to become avenues for money laundering and terror financing, a top-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the way forward for cryptocurrency and related issues underlined on Saturday.

Those at the meeting also strongly felt that attempts to mislead the youth through over-promising and non-transparent advertising must be stopped.

Importantly, it was communicated that steps taken by the Government will be progressive and forward-looking, an announcement that comes at a time when cryptocurrency is gaining increasing acceptance across the world. 

Also stressed upon was the fact that being an evolving technology, the government will keep a "close watch and take proactive steps".

Experts and other stakeholders will be consulted and global partnerships and collective strategies will be worked upon, it was emphasised.

The meeting termed a "comprehensive one" follows consultations by the RBI, finance ministry and home ministry with experts from across the country and the world. Global examples and best practices were also looked at.

It must be noted that crypto platforms are have seen their user base expand in a big way recently. Among those flying the flag for them in recent times have been the Tesla founder and world's richest man, Elon Musk. It must be noted that the market capitalisation of the global crypto market has already hit $3 trillion.

In India, one of the crypto exchanges WazirX has recorded a trading volume of over $36 billion in 2021 with an average of 44% month-on-month growth. The platform witnessed over 10X signups in 2021. The massive growth is due to ‘Work-from-Home’ and technological advancements in recent years.

Another crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber crossed 11 million registered users in just 15 months. It plans to deliver diverse investment options to its growing customer base.