Dangers of Cryptocurrency
Finance minister of India, Nirmala Sitaraman in a statement on Monday commented that the biggest threat possessed by cryptocurrency is its potential capability to aid terror financing and its unsolicited use in money laundering.
“The biggest risk for all countries across the board will be the aspect of money laundering and that of currency being used for financing terror”, she said.
High-level discussions at IMF
She made these statements in a high-level discussion during the ongoing spring meet of the IMF. Sitharaman asserted the use of regulation technology as the sole solution to the problem.
She commented on power of adept technology to regulate cryptocurrency, make sure that the technology is not behind the curve but on the top . During her speech, she also propounded the incapability of any one country to handle it by itself.
“It’s impossible if one country thinks that they can handle everything, it has to be across the board”, she added.
At present the Union Minister is on an official visit to Washington, to attend the Springs Meetings. These are to happen at the World Bank, the Central Bank Governor meeting, and the G20 Finance Ministers meeting. The event organized by IMF also witnessed Kristalina Georgiev, the chairwoman and managing director of IMF advising against the adoption of cryptocurrency as money.
In her opening remarks, the IMF chief stated that the world is at crossroads in terms of the speed and proportion of cryptocurrency but established that digital money is going to play a huge role in the near future.
India’s improving digital performance
During these discussions, Sitharaman underscored India’s performance in the digital world. She also discussed about the innumerable efforts of the regime toward building digital infrastructure in the past decade. She pointed out the increase in global adaption rate in India to 85%, against a global average of around 60%.
Sitharaman also stressed the increase in the digital adoption rate in India, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Pandemic enabled us to test and prove to ourselves that digital technology is simple to use, common people, can use it and its adaption was proven said the Union Minister while addressing the discussion.
The situation of cryptocurrency in India
Notably, these statements of the finance minister came in time when there exists speculations on future of cryptocurrency in India. The Union Budget tabled by Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this year bought cryptocurrency as well as other digital assets. These include Virtual Digital Assets, digital gold, and digital bank currency under the radar of heavy taxation of 30 percent.
The Union Minister mentioned the preparation of a Cabinet note on the matter which would consist of all details regarding the formulation of cryptocurrency regulations in India. However, these impositions weren’t very well accepted by India’s cryptocurrency investors, who were of the view that the government should shed its apprehensions and embrace crypto.
In one of her earlier statements made at a conclave held in March she raised her words regarding the same. She propounded that India is not going to shut off all options, when it comes to cryptocurrency, blockchain and fintech. She added that RBI is working towards launching its digital currency, as announced in the Budget of 2022.
The global crypto market cap increased by 1.95 percent to $1.89 trillion. According to the data of Coinmarketcap, global crypto volume has witnessed a massive increase of about 58.96% to $96.13 billion. Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s oldest cryptocurrency was trading at $40,648.01 in April.
Published by- Nikita Goswami
