Indian crypto tax policy has become the hottest topic for Indian crypto traders and exchange operators as it is set to become law on March 24 and will come into effect starting on April 1. The proposed 30% crypto tax is the highest in the country and is equivalent to the tax imposed on gambling and lottery tickets. While the high tax bracket was already a cause of concern for many new and small traders, a recent clarification from the government has made things even more complicated for the Indian traders. The parliamentary clarification on March 22 indicated that each …

A tax proposal on crypto from India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may be closer to becoming law as the country’s lower house of parliament is scheduled to consider the legislation on Thursday. According to a Wednesday publication, Sitharaman will be introducing appropriation and finance bills for 2022 to the Lok Sabha — the lower house of parliament — on March 24. The Finance Bill includes an amendment to the country’s income tax laws identifying “virtual digital assets” — including cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens — as taxable investments. First announced by the finance minister in February, the amendment to India’s existing …

Indian crypto tax policy became even more complicated just a week before the new tax laws are set to come into effect. A new parliamentary note answering queries about the new tax policies on virtual digital asset (VDA) suggest that traders can’t offset their losses from one digital asset against profit on another. As the new tax policy waits for April 1 to come into effect, many experts claim the latest clarification from the government is a death knell for traders. The crypto tax policy of the government expects traders to treat each investment and profit/loss on a digital asset …

On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, the country's central bank, published a critical bulletin regarding the cryptocurrency industry. While the report praised the innovative distributed ledger technology associated with digital currencies, the RBI dismissed arguments calling for regulation of such assets and called for an outright ban. RBI's core concerns were related to cryptocurrencies threatening the country's financial sovereignty. The RBI wrote: "Historically, private currencies have resulted in instability and therefore have evolved into fiat currencies over centuries. The retrograde step back to private currencies cannot be taken simply because technology allows it without considering the dislocation …

A fast-moving Bitcoiner has run through 7 of 40 countries on his Bitcoin-powered marathon around the world. Paco the Runner, also known as Paco de la India, set off on Sept. 17, 2021, paying for his entire running trip thanks to all the Bitcoiners around the world. He’s showing that “Bitcoin gives everyone freedom in the way they desire it.” Paco went from “living a lie on the fiat standard,” to traveling the world living off Bitcoin (BTC) only when a dear friend gifted him the book, The Bitcoin Standard. The reading and subsequent conversations with friends about money and …

Indicted by the United States Department of Justice in a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme, BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani remains untraced following conviction. In a court filing on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that the whereabouts of Kumbhani remains unknown. The SEC noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was in his native country India, but has remained untraced ever since the promoter for his BitConnect Ponzi scheme was charged by the SEC for defrauding American investors of over $2 billion. SEC in its filing noted that the convicted founder has most probably fled to a foreign country and “Kumbhani’s …

The Advertising Stands Council of India (ASCI) released a set of 12 guidelines for promotions and advertisement of virtual digital assets (VDA), including cryptocurrencies, on Wednesday. The chief advertising watchdog has developed the new guideline after extensive consultation with the stakeholders of the crypto ecosystem as well as the government, ASCI said. The advertising guidelines also mark the first legal framework related to the digital asset market in the country at a time when the government is yet to finalize the crypto bill. The new crypto advertising framework is set to come into effect starting April 1, the same date …

Earlier in February, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a tax proposal that would bring the relatively unregulated digital asset space under the purview of tax authorities. The proposal includes a 30% income tax on crypto returns and a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) by crypto exchanges on transactions above 10,000 Indian rupees ($133). The announcement came during the parliamentary budget session for 2022, and the government has already set April 1 as a deadline for crypto exchanges to comply with the new tax regulations. The introduction of the crypto tax was widely misreported as a form of legal …

Indian social networking platform Chingari has announced ambitions to revolutionize the experience of its 100 million-user creator economy through the integration of native digital asset, $GARI, and accompanying cryptocurrency wallet via the Solana blockchain. Translating into the word ‘Spark’ in the languages of Urdu and Hindi — a branding visibly consistent with its flame icon — the Chingari user interface often draws parallels to popular Western entertainment services TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, for its principal focus on short-timed, infinitely accessible video content. Launched in 2018, the platform has grown exponentially over the past few years, amassing over 35 …

T. Rabi Sankar from the Reserve Bank of India compared cryptocurrency to ponzi schemes and said that banning them, not regulating them, would be the “most advisable choice” for the Indian government. Sankar, the deputy governor for the RBI, told audiences at a keynote address on Feb. 14 that “We have also seen that cryptocurrencies are not amenable to definition as a currency, asset or commodity.” "Cryptocurrencies are not currencies, or financial assets or real assets or even digital assets. Therefore, it cannot be regulated by any financial sector regulator. It is not possible to regulate something that one cannot …

Several storylines that had been long in the making dominated last week’s news cycle in the cryptocurrency policy and enforcement department. The Russian government has made another huge step on the path toward creating a tailored regulatory framework for digital assets, unveiling its consolidated view that crypto is to be treated as currency rather than swept under the rug of a blanket ban. While this movement in the direction of crypto’s formal legitimization is a welcomed development, a host of questions persists related to both the exact shape of the new regime and its enforcement. The biggest enforcement story of …

Yet another statement by a top Indian official suggests that regulatory uncertainty around the status of digital assets in the country will persist in the near term. Responding to the general discussion of the 2022-23 Union Budget at Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of India’s bicameral parliament, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that she was not going to “legalize or ban” cryptocurrency at this moment. The minister added that “Banning or not banning will come subsequently,” when the ministry reviews input from consultations. Sitharaman also mentioned that the state has “the sovereign right to tax” income that citizens derive from …