The Indian Supreme court on July 3, heard the petition filed for Reserve Bank of India(RBI) ban on cryptocurrency. The verdict from the court upholds the decision to continue with the ban on providing any sort of services to companies that work with cryptocurrency, in effect from July 5.
The petition was filed by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) whose members include major crypto exchanges in the country such as Unocoin, Zebpay, and Wazirx. Apart from IAMAI, there are other petitions filed by major industry groups which will be heard on July 20 in Supreme court.
As per the statements from Nischal Shetty, Wazirx’s founder, the court will hear the second hearing for the petition by IAMAI along with other petitions on July 20 and added that,
The IAMAI had [also] submitted a representation to the RBI which was a detailed document explaining blockchain, cryptos and how they function. The RBI has said it will respond to that within 7 days….The representation was made with the belief that if the RBI gets a deep understanding of blockchain and crypto then they may go easy on the ban and think about regulations.
Aftermath of Supreme Court Ban
Before the court’s decision major players in the crypto industry were hopeful about the ban to be uplifted and the decision may come in favor of them. However, the court’s judgment has made them to rethink investment in this sector.
Nonetheless, Wazirx has alternative plans to launch peer-to-peer(P2P) crypto transfer service called escrow, which allows its customers to buy or sell crypto dodging RBI ban. Also, Shetty explained that,
If banks stop providing services after July 6th then we’ll need to launch P2P. All eyes are on banks now to see what they will do. Do they wait for the July 20th hearing or do they go ahead and implement the ban on transactions from July 6th onwards?
On the same lines, other exchanges are also planning to start with their own P2P network as an alternative to the banking system. For instance, Koinex is preparing to launch a network called Loop and exchanges like Unocoin and Zebpay have already started with the crypto-to-crypto trading platform.
So readers, what do you think of this decision by Indian Supreme court? Let us know thoughts in a comment below
