Under India's 75 ban, how can local exchanges save themselves?

On April 6, 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a new policy, stipulating that residents of the country cannot conduct digital currency transactions through bank accounts or digital wallets (that is, legal currency exchange business). In addition, RBI also prohibited banks from providing related settlement services for any enterprises under its jurisdiction, and gave a three-month buffer period, which came into effect on July 5.

Although the Central Bank of India issued a statement stating that digital currencies were not banned in India the day after the new policy was released, this ban also caused a series of butterfly effects like the ICO ban issued by the domestic central bank on September 4 last year.

The hashtag #RBICantStopMe (RBI can't stop me) popped up on Twitter the day after the new deal was announced. In addition, after the release of the new policy, market sentiment declined, and the average daily trading volume and prices of local exchanges showed a downward trend.

If the timeline is set forward, it is not difficult to see that after the release of the new policy, the local exchanges in India were unprecedentedly united, showing a three-month self-rescue operation.

• start a petition

In the early days, the exchanges hoped that the central bank would "change its mind" by initiating popular wishes.

On April 5, Change.org submitted a petition to "put India at the forefront of the blockchain application revolution", responding to the central bank's ban on banks and others from providing all digital currency services. The petition requested the Indian government to support blockchain and encryption Field, because it provides jobs for young people, and said that the RBI ban may lead to an increase in the number of private transactions of digital currencies in India. According to statistics, the petition received more than 17 million signatures within 5 days of being online.

On April 17, the Indian digital currency exchange CoinRecoil has submitted a petition to the Central Bank of India, the Ministry of Finance, and the Goods and Services Tax Council (GST), claiming that its ban on banks from providing services for digital currency trading platforms violates Article 1 of the Constitution. Section 19(1)(g), Section 14 and Section 301. Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution stipulates: Citizens have the right to engage in any occupation, transaction or business; Article 14 requires the prohibition of discrimination; Article 301 requires the guarantee of freedom of trade and commerce in India.

• The road to litigation

In addition to petitions, the Supreme Court of India has received an increasing number of complaints against the country's central bank. The reason for the joint lawsuit by the exchanges is that the RBI did not consult the exchanges before making a decision, did not start a public debate, and did not In addition, the ban may also push traders to touch the bottom line and conduct small transactions directly through cash that cannot be accounted for or managed, leading to illegal behavior and black markets that cause greater market harm. Initially, representatives of 11 different digital currency companies submitted a petition requesting the Supreme Court to sign a temporary injunction to invalidate the banking service ban issued by RBI for digital currency companies, but the court documents confirmed that the ban will not be issued temporarily, and followed in May with A hearing will be held in July.

Regrettably, several hearings did not bring hope to the exchanges. As a result of the hearings, the Supreme Court of India announced that it supported RBI’s digital currency ban, and banks should still stop digital currency transactions on July 5, 2018. Services provided. In response to the April 6 notice to terminate all transactions with digital currencies, relevant companies are not allowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

• Add currency trading pairs

Estonia has become a popular destination for Indian cryptocurrency entrepreneurs as the New Deal crackdown sparked a relocation of the digital currency industry in India.

But in the early days, in order to prevent the transaction from being completely shut down, local exchanges were more likely to choose to significantly increase trading pairs that had never existed before after April 6. Among them, Zebpay has added 6 trading pairs, and Unocoin has released a new trading App, which aims to enhance the liquidity of the exchange. Ajeet Khurana, CEO of Zebpay, said in an interview with the media, "Even without the announcement of RBI, currency transactions will be promoted. Now the facts have been recognized and should definitely be resolved faster."

As the effective date of the ban approaches, while local exchanges are preparing to stop legal deposits and withdrawals, they are also gradually promoting currency transactions, which also means that they will compete with large exchanges such as Binance. In addition, Unocoin, another major Indian exchange, announced the launch of an asset allocation tool "Crypto Basket", which allows investors to buy digital currency assets based on market capitalization or trading volume.

The latest news is that the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on a series of issues after the ban on July 20, but until the court officially revokes the existing encryption trading ban, local exchanges will not be able to support fiat currency and digital currency transactions.

Simultaneously with the RBI's "one size fits all", a series of countries represented by South Korea, Thailand, Malta, and Romania are actively implementing actual regulatory frameworks and policies.

In July, according to CCN citing the Korea Times, South Korea plans to relax restrictions on digital currency on the basis of G20’s unified rules. Prior to this, the South Korean government regarded digital currency exchanges as “industries” for the first time, and its financial committee pre-established Specialized new department "Virtual Currency Section".

On the 4th, Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed at a press conference that the parliament will approve three cryptocurrency bills aimed at supporting the blockchain sector. The bills will pass the last of these bills into law at this evening's session.

In the same month, the Thai government announced the details of Thailand’s digital asset trading guidelines, stipulating that seven digital currencies such as Bitcoin will be allowed to be used for ICOs, which had previously given dual attributes of digital assets as currencies and securities.

In addition, when Romania drafted digital currency regulatory regulations this month, the President of Uzbekistan signed an economic decree on the development of blockchain and digital currency on July 3. The decree involves building a digital economy through blockchain technology and digital currency markets. Measures and methods, and called for the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts, and encouraged ICO.