According to a report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India will oversee regulation of the cyptocurrency industry after Bitcoin is classified as an asset.
India may classify Bitcoin as an asset class in India soon, The New Indian Express reported, citing persons aware of the development. This would represent a departure from its previous hostile attitude towards cryptocurrency.
This is at a moment when El Salvador, a Central American country, has adopted Bitcoin legal tender.
According to the news report, the Securities and Exchange Board of India will oversee the regulation of the cryptocurrency sector once Bitcoin is classified as an asset.
Further, the report suggested that India’s cryptocurrency industry is currently in discussions with Finance Ministry about new regulations.
The report said that an expert committee from the ministry is currently studying the issue and that a Cryptocurrency Regulation Bill could be introduced to Parliament during the Monsoon Session.
Moneycontrol was unable to independently verify the news report.
A asset class is a group of financial instruments with similar financial characteristics that behave in the same way on the market.
Earlier, Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani had said that India should accept cryptocurrencies as an asset class. You can also have some assets in crypto, just as you do with real estate or gold. I think there’s a role for crypto as a stored value but certainly not in a transactional sense,” Nilekani told The Financial Times.
On June 10, Bitcoin surged 8 percent. The world’s most well-known and largest cryptocurrency has risen by almost 31 percent since January 4, when it was $27,734 at its lowest.
Bitcoin has been rising since June 8, when El Salvador declared that it would legalize the use of this cryptocurrency for money transfers. This move was made at a time cryptocurrency is facing regulatory resistance in major countries.