Bitcoin’s recent 26% drop sent weak hands running for the hills but derivatives data shows BTC’s setup is still bullish.
Bitcoin's (BTC) severe 26% drop from its $58,300 all-time high on Feb. 20 injected a bit of bearishness into the market but from a technical perspective, this was purely psychological as the digital asset held the $43,000 support with ease. This downside move caused indicators like the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to hit 38, its lowest level in five months.
Bitcoin price in USD at Coinbase. Source: TradingView
As Bitcoin tried to establish a bottom, derivatives contracts eliminated any bullish signal and momentarily displayed worrisome data. For example, the open interest on futures dropped 22% after peaking at $19.1 billion on Feb. 21.
Bitcoin futures aggregate open interest. Source: Bybt.com
As depicted above, considering the end-of-month expiry impact, BTC futures open interest fell by 22%. Albeit significant, the remaining $14.9 billion is still 44% above the previous month's data.
Derivatives indicators held steady, indicating a healthy market
By measuring the futures contracts premium to the current spot levels, one can infer whether professional traders are leaning bullish or bearish. Typically, markets should display a slightly positive annualized rate, a situation known as contango.
Although the 1-month futures contracts premium toned down from the ultra-bullish 6% rate seen mid-February, it did manage to sustain levels above 1.2%. The annualized equivalent is a 70% peak compared to the current 17% rate. Therefore, the futures contract premium indicates that any excessive leverage from buyers has been eliminated, but we are nowhere near a bear market.
Meanwhile, the BTC option markets the 25% delta skew measures how the neutral-to-bullish calls are priced than equivalent bearish puts.
The indicator acts as an options traders' fear and greed gauge and was sitting at negative 5% until Feb. 21, meaning protection to the upside was more expensive. Over the past week, the 25% delta skew moved to a neutral zone that was last seen almost five months ago.
This further confirms the absence of desperation from market makers and top traders while shredding signs of the excessive optimism seen in January.
The absence of bearishness during a crash is a good signal
As institutional investors continue to flock to the space, Bitcoin’s volatility tends to have a lessened impact on derivatives markets. To illustrate this new situation, both BTC futures and options markets indicators were far from flashing any red flags despite the 26% price drop.
Bitcoin's positive newsflow and institutional investors interest is likely unharmed after the most recent retest of $43,000. Thus, as companies and mutual funds accumulate Bitcoin, instead framing dips as catastrophic, these moves should be interpreted as buying opportunities.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of theauthorand do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
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Letitia James said her office was "sending a clear message to the entire industry."
New York Attorney General Letitia James is advising members of the crypto industry and investors to stay vigilant against participating in or becoming a victim of illegal activities.
According to the New York Attorney General’s office, James issued an alert to crypto investors today warning them to exercise “extreme caution when investing in virtual currencies.” She referred to cryptocurrencies as “high-risk, unstable investments that could result in devastating losses.”
James’ message included a warning to industry players that the AG would come down hard on firms skirting the law. She said that her office had "ended both Bitfinex and Tether’s illegal activities" in New York, a reference to the companies agreeing to pay the state $18.5 million in damages last week. As part of the settlement, the AG’s office will require Bitfinex and Tether to provide extensive reports on its finances and stop serving customers in New York.
"In the case of Tether, the company falsely represented that each of its stablecoins were fully backed, one-to-one, by U.S. dollars in reserve at all times," said James. "Tether made false statements about the backing of the 'tether' stablecoin, and about the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars between the two companies to cover up the truth about massive losses by Bitfinex."
The Attorney General added:
“We will not hesitate to take action against anyone who violates the law [...] We’re sending a clear message to the entire industry that you either play by the rules or we will shut you down.”
Crypto investment platform Coinseed may be the next to face the AG’s regulatory wrath. The office filed a lawsuit against the firm last month for allegedly defrauding investors out of more than $1 million and selling a token that remains unlisted after more than three years. James said she aims to "shut down Coinseed’s fraudulent operation" by seeking restitution for investors, disgorgement with interest, permanent injunctions against the firm, and "the full closure of Coinseed’s business operations."
Under current NY law, all crypto brokers, dealers, salespersons, and investment advisors must register with the AG’s Investor Protection Bureau if they are doing business in the state. Those without an exemption who fail to do so are subject to civil and criminal penalties.
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The original report from GizChina said that a software developer had modified the CPU and graphics cards on the new gaming console to mine crypto.
While users might still be able to adapt some gaming consoles for mining cryptocurrency, evidence suggests that recent reports of a modified PlayStation 5 mining Ether (ETH) are fake.
According to a report from news outlet GizChina, Chinese software developer Yifan Gu mined Ether using a PlayStation 5. The report claimed that the developer may have overclocked the PS5’s AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU cards to achieve a mining hash rate of 98.76 megahertz per second, and a screenshot from Gu showed the seemingly modified hardware required 211 watts of power to run.
However, a screenshot shared by the alleged developer contained a QR code message indicating that the story was manufactured for entertainment value: "There is no such software," followed by laughing.
Source: GizChina
Sony first released the PlayStation 5 in November 2020, though the company said it would not be making the console available to gamers in China until the second quarter of 2021. Given that the PS5 is in high demand worldwide and that travel is limited due to the pandemic, it would have been somewhat surprising for a developer like Gu to obtain and modify a console so quickly.
Though individuals are still able to mine crypto at home using modified PCs and gaming consoles, or rigs purchased directly from mining manufacturers, the power requirements — and cost — in addition to certain risks deter many from doing so. Some are using high-end graphics cards as part of unique rigs to seemingly make the process more fun. There are already a few mining enthusiasts who have built portable farms in their cars.
Last year, developers from 1st Playable denied rumors that one of its games could be used to hijack Nintendo’s Switch console to mine BTC.
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Bitcoin and most major altcoins are witnessing strong buying at lower levels, indicating the start of a relief rally.
The U.S. bond yields have softened and this has ignited investor's appetite for risk-on assets. After a negative closing last week, the S&P 500 has started the current week on a positive note. Thi bullish sentiment has also rubbed on to the crypto sector, which is surging higher, led by Bitcoin (BTC).
After Tesla and Mastercard’s foray into Bitcoin, analysts at Citigroup believe that Bitcoin is at a “tipping point,” which could either take it mainstream and make it the preferred currency for world trade or result in a “speculative implosion.”
Citi’s analysts expect the central bank digital currencies and the fiat-pegged stablecoins to be positive for Bitcoin’s adoption.
While several investors have been worrying about a deeper correction in Bitcoin, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor seems unfazed. Saylor announced that MicroStrategy added another $15 million worth of Bitcoin to its purse, taking its total holding to 90,859 coins which were purchased at an average price of $24,063 per coin.
However, not everyone is bullish on Bitcoin. 'Big Short' investor Michael Burry believes that Bitcoin is in a speculative bubble at the current levels and may witness a sharp fall that “will be dramatic and painful.”
Let’s analyze the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to determine whether the uptrend has resumed or if the current up-move is only a dead cat bounce.
BTC/USD
Bitcoin dipped to an intraday low at $43,006.77 on Feb. 28 and the long tail on the day’s candlestick suggests the bulls used the fall to accumulate at lower levels. The buyers are currently trying to sustain the price above the 20-day exponential moving average ($47,711).
If they succeed, the BTC/USD pair could be on target to rally to $52,000. The bears are again likely to mount a stiff resistance at this level. If the price turns down from this resistance, the pair could consolidate between $43,000 and $52,000 for the next few days.
The flat moving averages and the relative strength index (RSI) above 55 also point to a possible range-bound action in the near term.
However, if the bullish momentum picks up and the buyers push the price above $52,000, a retest of the all-time high at $58,341.03 is possible. This bullish view will invalidate if the pair turns down and breaks below the 50-day simple moving average ($41,313). Such a move could signal the start of a deeper correction to $28,850.
ETH/USD
Ether’s (ETH) slide below the moving averages shows that it is in a corrective phase. But the long tail on the Feb. 28 candlestick shows that the bulls are attempting to defend the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $1,413.
The bulls are currently attempting to build up on the recovery and sustain the price above the 50-day SMA ($1,509). If they succeed, the next stop is likely to be the 20-day EMA ($1,624), which is likely to act as a stiff hurdle.
In a correction, the bears try to sell on relief rallies to the 20-day EMA. If the ETH/USD pair turns down from the 20-day EMA, it will suggest a negative sentiment. The bears will then try to sink the price below $1,289. If they succeed, the decline could extend to the 61.8% retracement level at $1,026.
Contrary to this assumption, if the bulls can propel and sustain the price above the 20-day EMA, the pair may retest the all-time high at $2,049.
ADA/USD
The long wick on the Feb. 27 candlestick shows profit-booking near the psychological resistance at $1.50. However, the long tail on Cardano’s (ADA) Feb. 28 candlestick suggests that bulls continue to accumulate at lower levels.
Although rising moving averages are a bullish sign, the negative divergence on the RSI indicates that the momentum may be weakening.
If the bears sink the price below $1.55, the ADA/USD pair could drop to the 20-day EMA ($1.02). This is an important support to watch out for because a rebound off it will suggest that traders continue to accumulate on dips.
A breakout of the $1.50 resistance could start the next leg of the uptrend that may reach $1.83 and then $2. This bullish view will invalidate if the pair breaks below $0.98.
BNB/USD
Binance Coin (BNB) bounced off the 20-day EMA ($200) on Feb 28 and the bulls have pushed the price above the downtrend line. If the bulls can sustain the price above the downtrend line, it will suggest the start of a relief rally.
The rising moving averages and the RSI above 61 suggest that bulls have the upper hand. The first target on the upside is $281 and if that is crossed, the BNB/USD pair may rally to $309.4995.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price fails to sustain above the downtrend line, it will suggest that traders who are stuck at higher levels are bailing out of their positions. The trend will signal a deeper correction if the price turns down and breaks below the 20-day EMA.
DOT/USD
In an uptrend, traders buy the dips to the 20-day EMA as it offers a low-risk entry opportunity. Therefore, Polkadot’s (DOT) current bounce off the 20-day EMA ($31) suggests the uptrend remains intact.
Both moving averages are sloping up and the RSI is above 64, indicating the path of least resistance is to the upside. If the bulls can drive the price above $35.6618, the DOT/USD pair may rally to $42.2848.
This bullish view may invalidate if the price turns down from the overhead resistance and breaks below the 20-day EMA. Such a move will suggest that traders are using the relief rallies to lighten up their long positions.
XRP/USD
The bulls are attempting to defend the 50-day SMA ($0.40). If the current bounce sustains, the buyers will try to push XRP above $0.50. If that happens, the altcoin could start its journey to $0.65.
However, the bulls are unlikely to have it easy because the downsloping 20-day EMA ($0.472) and the RSI below 50 suggest that bears have the upper hand.
If the price turns down from the current levels or the overhead resistance at the 20-day EMA, the bears will try to sink the price below the 50-day SMA. If they succeed, the XRP/USD pair may drop to $0.359. A break below this support could start a sharper decline to $0.25.
LTC/USD
Litecoin (LTC) broke below the 50-day SMA ($166) and dipped to the uptrend line on Feb. 28, but the long tail on the day’s candlestick shows strong buying at lower levels. The bulls are currently trying to push the price towards the $185.58 overhead resistance.
They are likely to meet stiff resistance from the bears at the 20-day EMA ($186). If the price turns down from this resistance, the bears will make one more attempt to sink the LTC/USD pair below the uptrend line. If they can manage to do that, a drop to $120 is likely.
On the other hand, if the bulls can propel the price above the 20-day EMA, the pair could rally to $205 and then to $240.
LINK/USD
The bulls are trying to stall the correction at the 50-day SMA ($25.26). Although the price dipped below the 50-day SMA on Feb. 28, the long tail on the candlestick suggests buying at lower levels. Chainlink (LINK) is currently attempting to start a relief rally.
If the bulls can push the price above the 20-day EMA ($27.98) and the $29.33 overhead resistance, it will suggest that the correction may be over. The LINK/USD pair could then rally to $34 and then to the all-time high at $36.93.
On the contrary, if the price turns down from the overhead resistance, the bears will try to sink and sustain the pair below the 50-day SMA. If that happens, a drop to $20.11 is possible.
XLM/USD
Stellar Lumens (XLM) broke above the 20-day EMA ($0.428) on Feb. 27, but the bulls could not push the price above the resistance line of the descending channel. This suggests that demand dries up at higher levels.
However, the positive sign is that the bulls have successfully defended the 50-day SMA ($0.369) on Feb. 28. If the XLM/USD pair rises above the 20-day EMA, the bulls will make one more attempt to drive the price above the channel. If they succeed, the pair could rally to $0.50.
On the other hand, if the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, the pair may again drop to the 50-day SMA. The flat moving averages and the RSI near the midpoint suggest a few days of range-bound action.
BCH/USD
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) broke below the uptrend line on Feb. 28, but the bulls purchased the dip as seen from the long tail on the day’s candlestick. If the current rebound sustains, the bulls will try to start a relief rally that may reach the 20-day EMA ($551).
The bears are likely to defend the 20-day EMA and if the price turns down from this resistance, it will suggest that the sentiment remains negative. A break below the uptrend line could result in a fall to $370.
Both moving averages have started to turn down and the RSI is in the negative territory, indicating advantage to the bears. However, if the bulls can push and sustain the price above the 20-day EMA, the BCH/USD pair could rise to $631.71.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.
"Culturally I compare bridging the crypto world with the old as akin to finding a portal between two distinct worlds in the multiverse," said Dan Loeb
Dan Loeb, CEO of New York-based asset management firm Third Point and a well-known figure on Wall Street, has said he is looking into ways to bridge the gap between traditional finance and the crypto space.
In a series of tweets to his followers on Monday, Loeb said he had been "doing a deep dive into crypto," referencing a recent article on nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, from Chris Dixon, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Dixon described the ways NFTs could change the economics of content creators — namely that the technology allows them “a new way to take the money.”
Though Loeb called the crypto space “a real test of being intellectually open to new and controversial ideas,” he said he was still maintaining a healthy level of skepticism.
“Culturally I compare bridging the crypto world with the old as akin to finding a portal between two distinct worlds in the multiverse,” said Loeb. “Another conflict to overcome is the idea that being late to the crypto party will inevitably lead to one taking the sucker seat at a high stakes poker table versus this still being early days in what is just now being adopted in the mainstream.”
I’ve been doing a deep dive into crypto lately. It is a real test of being intellectually open to new and controversial ideas. Culturally I compare bridging the crypto world with the old as akin to finding a portal @chbetween two distinct worlds in the multiverse. https://t.co/LqWwfIxOyd
The Third Point CEO may be late to certain aspects of the "crypto party," as he puts it, but his potential inclusion in the space as a Wall Street figure could be the first domino in a line of other major investors still hesitant about the technology and what it means for traditional finance. Some estimates put the hedge fund’s assets under management between $15 billion and $20 billion, with Loeb’s net worth at more than $3 billion.
In July 2020, Cointelegraph reported that figures like Loeb were akin to “activist investors,” individuals seeking to “effect a significant change” within a company by purchasing large numbers of its shares or getting a seat on its board. The fact that Loeb chose to announce his crypto deep dive on social media may indicate that he already has a certain understanding of the space.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other tokens can be exceptionally volatile based on mere rumors of institutional investors. Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, has effected changes to the price of Dogecoin (DOGE) with a single tweet. A major Wall Street billionaire just announcing he’s considering the implications of getting into the space could be bullish news for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
"Better late than never, but [Loeb] seems very conflicted," said Joe Kernen, host of CNBC's Squawk Box. "He's thinking a lot about it."
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Smart contract platforms are evolving, with DeFi at the center of it all — but the Ethereum factor is impossible to ignore.
The decentralized finance movement was a ticking time bomb waiting to detonate when it finally exploded in 2020. From automated market makers to the industry’s current obsession with liquidity mining, DeFi has grown leaps and bounds over the last year.
Most decentralized finance applications are deployed on the Ethereum blockchain, bringing billions of dollars onto the network and pushing it to its maximum operational threshold. While the capabilities of the underlying network may seem like the only thing holding DeFi back, Ethereum isn’t slacking either.
As Ethereum 2.0 gears up for its transition, there’s a lot in store for 2021. Both DeFi and Ether (ETH) have been doing exceptionally well, with the native Ethereum token recently retracing its all-time high and even reaching a $2,000 valuation.
While some vocal community members believe this pump is the result of a bubble similar to the initial coin offering boom of 2017, there are many reasons to think this isn’t the case.
DEXter’s Lab
DeFi has brought a breath of fresh air to the cryptocurrency space, spawning countless new tokens that have revolutionized decentralized lending and borrowing services. The short-lived Yam Finance, which attempted to simplify the yield farming experience and transform blockchain governance into a practical model, quickly became one of the fastest-growing platforms in the DeFi space.
Projects like Uniswap even resurrected the concept of decentralized exchanges using an automated market maker model. This allows the system to price trades without relying on liquidity from a counterparty. Instead of using order books, the AMM prices assets using the ratio of tokens in a liquidity pool to determine supply and demand.
Uniswap’s surge in use has been fueling the DeFi engine for quite some time, with daily trading volume rising from around $1 million to $1 billion between July 2020 and September 2020. Without being tied down by order books, Uniswap can execute orders on-chain, meaning transactions are made and settled on the network directly, and this has become one of Ethereum’s most prominent features.
This has driven the number of smart contract calls on Ethereum to skyrocket, reaching new all-time highs and creating a token economy that is increasingly being managed by code. However, while DeFi’s trustless ecosystem has brought greater efficiency levels and more automation opportunities, it’s still far more complicated than traditional offerings have become.
This is a major problem that DeFi needs to address before it can attain more mainstream adoption. The act of buying and selling cryptocurrencies already needs work from a consumer’s perspective, but in its current state, DeFi is still very much “function over form.” Outfits like Yearn.finance have brought algorithmically managed portfolios to DeFi, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“Yield farming is not sustainable, but it is helping to bootstrap the industry in the short term and attract developers,” said Rune Christensen, founder of veteran DeFi platform MakerDAO, in a conversation with Cointelegraph, adding:
“Once the markets cool down, the next stage for DeFi will be integration with traditional finance and the tokenization of real-world assets so they can be used in DeFi protocols on-chain.”
He also mentioned that DeFi is currently fully reliant on the Ethereum platform, especially because it’s dependable on composability between current DeFi applications and ETH as a primary source of collateral and stability. However, there may be other issues in the way of DeFi’s growth.
This is a sentiment shared by many members of the community. According to Illia Polosukhin, CEO of Near Protocol — a blockchain that allows for the creation of decentralized applications and is interoperable with Ethereum — DeFi might just keep growing on Ethereum.
“Most of the applications are built to work with and around current limitations and they would be only moderately successful on other chains,” he said. “It’s not just the apps themselves, but the whole ecosystem of users, assets, other applications, and integrations.” However, there may be other issues in the way of DeFi’s growth.
Those issues include the launch of Eth2 and its potential effects on decentralized finance. The MakerDAO founder claimed that it will likely have a smaller impact than expected, with fewer new DeFi apps. “Layer 2 scalability solutions with high-security bridges will probably enable more retail-focused DeFi,” he said.
Introducing more complexity is taxing for the end-user, especially with the rough user interface/user experience systems that seem prevalent throughout the space. Still, this would allow DeFi smart contracts to interact and transact automatically without any human help across multiple platforms.
At the moment, Ethereum benefits from application composability and greater liquidity than any other smart-contract-enabled blockchain, but dismantling either of these can open the floodgates for DeFi apps to shift platforms.
The potential effects of Ethereum 2.0 on DeFi are still unclear. Ideally, the platforms should bring scalability, composability and liquidity, but this is no mean feat, especially while many decentralized applications are migrating to layer-two solutions and application-specific chains. According to Kevin Davis, chief technology officer of the Kava DeFi platform:
“It will still be a few years before Eth 2.0 is a significant player in the DeFi space, so for now all we can do is wait and see. The biggest bottleneck is the lack of skilled developers and mature developer ecosystems and tooling. We are still in the early days, and very few individuals/teams/companies have made it anywhere near the edge of the productivity curve.”
Wrapping things up
Wrapped assets are also a considerable part of the DeFi space, with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) bringing the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), to smart contract platforms. Wrapped Bitcoin is an ERC-20 token backed by actual Bitcoin, and it has around $6 billion worth in circulation on Ethereum at the time of writing.
While most DeFi tokens are built on the ERC-20 standard — a framework for designing tokens on Ethereum — ETH is not. Because this framework was only created after ETH, the token isn’t technically compliant with the ERC-20 standard. But with Wrapped Ether (WETH), it can now also effectively be used as a regular token on DeFi platforms.
With wrapped assets, Ethereum can bring liquidity to any tokenized asset on a variety of platforms, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to the network. The surge in smart contract calls and the overall number of transactions has pushed ETH gas fees to a new level, with high gas prices becoming quite typical. Polosukhin told Cointelegraph:
“More scalable infrastructure can free developers from having to think about that — developers can build faster and more complex applications when they don’t have to worry about the same types of issues that a limited capacity network would have.”
During a token launch, this can be catastrophic, as hordes of users flood the network to get their hands on it as soon as possible. This leads to miners prioritizing transactions with higher fees, which then inflates transaction costs as the people in the queue try to cut to the front of the line.
While high transaction fees could hurt the space, more incentivized miners ultimately secure the network better. From this perspective, the increase in miner fees could also be seen as a sign that Ethereum is becoming more secure. However, this makes the barrier for entry higher than some would be comfortable with. Small investments make small profits, and with similar fees for both $100 and $100,000 transactions, users transferring large amounts have an undisputed advantage.
That being said, Ethereum is shifting away from the proof-of-work model that incentivizes miners through block rewards and miner fees, instead opting for a proof-of-stake model on the upgraded Eth2 network. Further, the median Ethereum average weekly transfer value has been steadily growing, which is a strong signal that the network is shifting toward fewer novice investors.
Beyond the promise of Ethereum 2.0, scaling the “world computer” has been an ongoing effort for the last few years. The recently launched Optimistic Ethereum testnet is a layer-two scaling solution project that offers instant transactions at a much lower cost. Further, this can be implemented using the current Ethereum infrastructure, and popular DeFi projects like Synthetix, Uniswap and Chainlink have signed on as early adopters.
DeFi and Ethereum are a codependent couple, and while their progress and development run in parallel, they are both growing steadily yet independently. With solutions like the Optimistic testnet and the upcoming shift to proof-of-stake, the Ethereum platform seems primed for even more DeFi action in 2021.
According to MakerDAO’s Christensen, the biggest bottleneck for developing new DeFi applications is “the lack of clarity around how to interact safely with legal and real-world political and financial systems in order to gain real economic relevance.”
As both ETH’s and the DeFi industry’s market capitalization grows, new projects are setting up shop faster than ever before. DeFi has grown into a burgeoning arena for innovation and development in the blockchain space, and with how it grew against insurmountable odds last year, there will be far more windows for growth in the times ahead.
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Unicas is planning to open 50 banks in India by the end of the year, but a proposed bill banning crypto could complicate matters.
India’s Unicas crypto bank opened its third physical branch last week in New Delhi. Previous locations were launched in Jamnagar and Jaipur.
Unicas reportedly allows customers to access fiat and crypto services at the bank and provides digital loans using crypto holdings as collateral. The bank aims to launch 50 branches across the country by the end of the year and 50 more by the end of 2022.
Its plans may be stifled, however, due to a crypto bill that is awaiting consideration in India’s parliament. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill is intended to "prohibit all private cryptocurrencies" while also creating a regulatory framework for a digital rupee issued by the Reserve Bank of India. However, the bill also says it will allow for "certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses."
In an earlier statement to Cointelegraph, Cashaa CEO Kumar Gaurav said "there is no way any government" can ban crypto given its nature as a global, decentralized system. However, he opined that the Indian government is attempting to crack down on crypto scams with the proposed ban.
"The government is only trying to put a full-stop to any scams operating in the name of crypto," said Gaurav. "Overall, banning crypto will not be a win for anybody. And I trust even the government understands that very well."
He added:
"Depriving the country of the technology and opportunity which is being created by crypto is not very different from depriving someone of the internet."
The proposed legislation is currently being considered in the upper house of India’s Parliament as part of its budget session, which is in recess until Sunday. However, the government is reportedly considering a legislative shortcut to pass the bill by using the “ordinate route.” This method would require the president of India, Ram Nath Kovind, to issue an ordinance when Parliament is not in session.
It is unclear how the bill passage would potentially affect Unicas’ operations in India. An anonymous source claiming to be a senior Indian Finance Ministry official claimed earlier this month that the use of all cryptocurrencies would be completely banned in the country under the proposed bill. However, Nischal Shetty, CEO and founder of India’s WazirX exchange, said “The government isn’t in a hurry to make a decision” on crypto and might consult with stakeholders rather than outright banning it.
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