Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Centre has no proposal to recognise Bitcoin as a currency.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the risk of cryptocurrency going in the wrong hands is being monitored. The Minister also stated that there is no decision to stop advertisements of digital currencies.
Ms Sitharaman also said there were extensive discussions on the regulatory capacity of cryptocurrencies and “let’s wait for the Bill”.
“There were other dimensions and the old Bill had to be reworked and now we are trying to work on a new Bill,” she added.
Sitharaman, on Monday, had said that the Centre has no proposal to recognise Bitcoin as a currency in the country. She also mentioned that the government does not collect data on Bitcoin transactions.
The government had said that it has received a proposal from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to include digital currency under the definition of a ‘bank note’.
In October, the RBI had introduced the proposal of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
CBDCs — digital or virtual currency — are basically the digital version of fiat currencies, for instance, rupee in India.
Meanwhile, the RBI has repeatedly raised concerns over cryptocurrencies posing macro-economic and financial stability risks.
