The entire cryptocurrency market in India had a bloodbath on the evening of 23 November as panic set in with retail investors over the news coming out that the government is tabling a bill in the upcoming Parliament to ban "private cryptocurrencies".

By midnight, the entire market fell by around 15 percent, with Bitcoin down by 17 percent, Ethereum down by nearly 15 percent and Tether by almost 18 percent.

The root of this volatility is The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, which “seeks to ban all private cryptocurrencies in the country, but will allow certain exceptions to promote underlying technology and its uses.”

Along with this, the document also states that the Reserve Bank of India will be introducing its own digital coin as well. But, there is no knowledge so far on how this RBI coin will work or its purpose.

An unregulated market so far, for the past few months, the Centre has been dropping hints regarding its intent on regulating cryptocurrency in India. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a recent speech at Sydney Dialogue said that the “democratic countries need to work together on cryptocurrency and ensure that it does not end up in the wrong hands.”

But with reportedly 10 crore retail investors in the crypto market, how can a ban impact India’s crypto market? What is the Centre’s concerns regarding cryptocurrencies? And if you are an investor, what should you do with your investment?

Guests:  Subhash Garg, former finance Secretary of India and Naimish Sanghvi, the CEO of CoinCrunch, a crypto news platform.

Host and Producer: Himmat Shaligram

Editor: Shelly Walia

Music: Big Bang Fuzz

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