The Indian government has decided about banning private cryptocurrencies and introducing a new bill for digital currency with the assistance of the Reserve Bank of India during this Budget session. The government intends to introduce 20 new bills in this session and this bill is amongst them.

The new bill titled ‘The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021’ will be used to create a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency which would be issued by the Reserve Bank of India. This bill also tries to prevent all private cryptocurrencies in India but allows for some exceptions to promote the said technology of cryptocurrency and its uses. This bill seems to be based on the recommendations presented by the SC Garg Committee formed by the Centre, which recommended banning cryptocurrencies and allowing an official digital currency.

Currently, after a Supreme Court verdict, a person can buy and sell virtual currency, but there is no legal framework available thus making it riskier. Recently, the price of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, surged to as high as $38,000 attracting more and more people to invest in them but has currently come down to around $33.8 thousand.