India’s Top Court Supports RBI’s Ban On Cryptocurrency

BTC Wires: The much awaited verdict of the Supreme Court of India has finally been made, and it’s hardly any good news for crypto users in India. The Supreme Court of India has refused to grant a stay on the banking restrictions on cryptocurrencies initiated by the RBI(Reserve Bank of India).

To follow things up from the beginning, all cases related to cryptocurrency as per the orders of the Supreme Court were to be rounded up and attended on July 20, 2018. However, this date was brought forward on the request of the Internet and Mobile Association of India(IAMAI) to July 3. IAMAI’s reason for requesting to prepone the date of the hearing was in relation to the circular issued by RBI, dated April 6.

After the hearing today, the Supreme Court has declined the request of the IAMAI to put a stay on the RBI’s banking restrictions. As a result of this, banks in India will have to refrain from providing any extensions in the form of banking solutions to any cryptocurrency-related entities. Moreover, the circular issued by the RBI also applies to digital payment providers that feature under the jurisdiction of the RBI.

The seeds for this ban were planted as far back as April 6, when the RBI first issued the circular. The circular clearly mentioned all banks and PPIs(prepaid payment instruments) must forbear crypto transactions and provided them a three month window to settle up their cases.

As a cascading effect of the impending ban, banks and cryptocurrency exchanges have begun taking measures to settle up scores before the ban comes into effect. Along the same lines, popular trading platform Zebpay has urged its users to withdraw their money while the rupee-to-cryptocurrency conversion facility is still available. The exchange has further begun to offer crypto-to-crypto exchange facilities already.

Among Indian banks, State Bank of India, HDFC, AXIS Bank, YES Bank, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra have ceased several of their services to cryptocurrency exchanges as well as individual traders.

Dmitriy

Having majored in Social Psychology and Economics, I worked as a team lead of a tech and fundamental analysis lab in the Applied System Analysis Research Institute. I write financial articles for various international media. I also hold the position of a Chief Analyst at RoboForex.