Following the Supreme Court’s reversal of the Reserve Bank of India’s ban on financial institutions providing banking services to crypto firms, the country’s digital asset exchanges are seeking clarity on their taxation obligations. On May 4, India Times reported that several of India’s crypto exchanges collectively penned a letter to the RBI claiming that the current absence of regulatory clarity has led to banks continuing to deny services to exchanges dealing with crypto assets. The report notes that the exchanges have also reached out to India’s high court regarding the matter. Indian crypto exchanges want GST clarification In particular, the …

Indian tech startup Smart Sight Innovation — or SSI — has developed an app designed to improve maintenance and inspection of vehicles. SSI built the mobile app for an unnamed American client, which specializes in the development of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain platforms, according to an April 27 announcement. Currently, the app is available on Android devices. Keeping data in digital lockers SSI said that the app creates a summary of various issues — like repair work and compliance with inspection criteria — faced by a vehicle. It also sends alerts to vehicle drivers, and takes pictures …

Leading figures in India’s crypto industry are reading positive signs from Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in India's largest mobile operator. First reported on April 22, Facebook’s deal with Jio Platforms — the digital technology unit of billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries — represents the largest-ever foreign direct investment in India’s tech sector. Facebook will take a 9.9% stake in the business, whose services include the mobile network Reliance Jio, which has drawn 388 million users to date. Last fall, Reliance Jio Infocomm had installed what Ambani claimed was ostensibly one of the world’s largest blockchain networks “with tens …

In one of 2020’s biggest stories about cryptocurrencies so far, the Indian Supreme Court struck down a blanket ban on trading cryptocurrencies issued by the Reserve Bank of India earlier in the year. Then, March happened, and everything changed as COVID-19 spread around the world, inducing quarantines across the world and stoking unprecedented volatility in financial markets. India is now in a national 21-day lockdown with industries shuttered and strict enforcement doled out by the government. Following similar initiatives by other countries affected by the viral pandemic, the COVID-19 fallout changes the narrative of the Supreme Court ruling — fomenting …

The lack of uniformity among different jurisdictions’ cryptocurrency laws makes it difficult for crypto exchanges seeking to expand to new markets. While some countries are embracing and fostering innovation, others are more hostile to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Further exacerbating the difficulty is the lack of regulatory certainty in many jurisdictions, including the United States. Below are four of the most significant international regulatory milestones so far in 2020. The European Union’s AML rules now apply to cryptocurrency exchanges The European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism rules now apply to crypto custodians, such as wallets …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is deepening its presence in two major emerging markets, India and Indonesia. In an announcement published on April 14, the exchange revealed that users are now able to trade cryptocurrencies peer-to-peer (P2P) for Indian Rupees (INR) and Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). Both fiat currencies will be available against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT) Binance Coin (BNB) and Binance Dollar (BUSD) via the platform’s site and mobile app. Laying the foundations Well ahead of the recent improvements in India’s crypto regulatory climate, Binance had already begun to pave the way towards extending its services to the country’s …

A survey released on April 2 and conducted by peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) marketplace Paxful revealed growing positive sentiment in terms of cryptocurrency adoption in India. Paxful's survey of investors between the ages of 18–55 revealed that 75% of them had invested in cryptocurrencies. Prior to the Reserve Bank of India's crypto ban lifting, Paxful said that trade volume in the P2P marketplace in January exceeded $3 million, taking into account that 93.8% of respondents invested in cryptos before the ban. According to the study, 78.5% of respondents prefer to use cryptocurrencies to transfer money quickly and easily, since they believe …

Indian crypto exchange BuyUCoin has sealed regulatory approval from Estonia’s financial watchdog to expand its services abroad. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the exchange’s CEO Shivam Thakral revealed that the platform had received its crypto-fiat license in late 2019, followed by a crypto wallet license this year. In tandem, BuyUCoin also announced its partnership on March 31 with Indian mobile-based payments system and digital wallet provider Mobikwik, which has a reported reach of 107 million users and 3 million merchants. Estonia’s compliance requirements Securing the licenses required to offer a full scope of fiat-crypto and custodial services in Estonia posed a challenge …

Among industry participants and investors, India is emerging as a market to watch for following the overturn of a crypto ban that was placed by the Reserve Bank of India back in April 2018. The prominent investors looking to get a piece of India’s nascent crypto space include Tim Draper, a billionaire investor who obtained thousands of Bitcoin from 2014’s Silk Road auction. Draper recently said that he has “met several Bitcoin and crypto startups” from India and that he “hopes to be able to fund a number of them.” He also recently showed his excitement for the move by …

Tech Mahindra, the IT subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group, has become the first Indian business to use R3’s blockchain-based Marco Polo Network for conducting cross-border transactions. It said the platform had resulted in faster reconciliation and ambiguity resolution, as well as the significant reduction of paperwork and time required for the entire transaction cycle. Tech Mahindra partnered with Singapore’s DBS Bank, which facilitated the transactions and acted as the company’s leading trade bank. The parties used the Marco Polo Receivables Discounting product which is designed to help companies optimise their working capital, improve liquidity and mitigate credit risk. Marco …

India’s cryptocurrency ecosystem has been in limbo since the country’s central bank barred banks from dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges in 2018. As of March 4, the Supreme Court of India has done away with those restrictions on crypto, allowing the second-most populous country — and the most populous democracy — a path to digital-currency freedom. The lifting of the ban by the Supreme Court will open new opportunities for India in terms of investments, the economy and the market as a whole. After the Reserve Bank of India restricted financial institutions from dealing with cryptocurrency, trade volumes fell significantly overnight. …

A recent funding round has just added quite a bit to an Indian crypto exchange’s coffers. Mumbai-based exchange CoinCDX announced on March 24 it had received $3 million in new funding. The Series A round was led by Bain Capital Ventures, Polychain, and HDR Group. CEO and Co-founder of CoinDCX, Sumit Gupta, said that the funding would provide the means for the exchange to further the mass adoption of crypto in India: “As the country’s largest exchange, we are in a position to drive national crypto adoption forward responsibly. This successful investment round will go a long way in funding …