After more than a year of uncertainty and months of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court of India has finally struck down the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) crypto services ban.

The news will be a huge boost for Indian crypto-related business, which had been effectively locked out of the country’s financial system since the RBI imposed a blanket ban on banks offering services to crypto-related business in July 2018.

Both the public and industry challenged the controversial RBI ban, with the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) – whose members include Apple, eBay, Etsy, Unocoin, and Yahoo! India – bringing a combined case against the RBI to the Supreme Court, with arguments heard over two weeks in January 2020.

According to reports, the Supreme Court judges, headed by headed by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, found the RBI had acted disproportionately, and that it was not within the bank’s jurisdiction to ban financial firms from serving crypto-related businesses.

AYO.NEWS says:

Despite this major victory, the Indian cryptocurrency industry still faces the threat of a draft bill called ‘Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies.’ Though the Indian government delayed its introduction, which had been slated for late last year, the bill which proposes introducing a state-backed ‘Digital Rupee’ issued by the RBI, still has the potential to kill the industry.

Staying with India, at the end of January we reported that a government body, the National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), had published a draft national blockchain and distributed ledger strategy.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

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