India top court strikes down ban on cryptocurrency News
MichaelWuensch / Pixabay
India top court strikes down ban on cryptocurrency

Amid a struggling global stock market, the Supreme Court of India ruled Wednesday against the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ban on cryptocurrencies.

The initial ban originated in 2018 after financial regulators and the Indian government began to examine the emerging cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ripple, and ethereum. At that time they had “concerns of consumer protection, market integrity and money laundering, among others.”

Consequently, Indian banks were ordered by the RBI to sever all ties with all cryptocurrency entities. Numerous startup, technology and other companies that dealt in currencies were almost immediately crippled by the inability to utilize Indian banks for their global work.

Multiple crypto exchanges brought suit against the RBI restriction and ultimately the court ruled that it was not valid law and struck it down. The court said that these new currency types present no visible damage to banks and a complete ban was not proportionate.

The cryptocurrency exchanges have welcomed the verdict. “The win belongs to the entire crypto community in India,” co-founder of Unocoin Sathvik Vishwanath wrote in a blog post.

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