As the government is considering the introduction of a Cryptocurrency bill in parliament to ban all private players in cryptocurrencies in the country or impose restrictions on their usage to "promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses", all the cryptocurrencies witnessed a sharp fall in value ranging from 15 to 18 per cent.
The major cryptocurrency Bitcoin was down over 17 percent, followed by Ethereum down 15 per cent, and Tether down by almost 18 per cent on Tuesday and today, (Nov 24) Bitcoin prices were trading marginally lower at $56,671.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, however, gained 3% to $4,270. Dogecoin price rallied nearly 2% to $0.22 whereas Shiba Inu plunged more than 7% to $0.000041, according to CoinDesk. The performance of other cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, XRP, Polkadot, Uniswap, Stellar, Cardano, Solana also were trading mixed over the last 24 hours.
Govt to Introduce Bill in Parliament
The government is planning to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the upcoming winter session of parliament that is scheduled to begin from November 29.
The Bill seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in the country with certain exceptions to safeguard from possible money-laundering of the currency. The bill expected to be passed in the winter session entails the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue its own digital currency "to create a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India."
Of late, several securities firms have been showing misleading advertisements in the media regarding investment potential without the possible risks associated with an investment in cryptocurrency. The government has held several meetings with stakeholders to discuss the regulation of digital currencies and the decision to regulate the cryptocurrency has been taken at a cabinet meeting last month.
The first-ever Standing Committee on Finance on digital currencies, chaired by BJP member and former finance minister of state Jayant Sinha had taken up the issue at the committee level to discuss "opportunities and challenges" of crypto finance early this month and reached a consensus that cryptocurrency can't be stopped but it must be regulated without delay so that it does not end up in the wrong hands.
