For a government that has embraced fintechs and blockchain wholeheartedly in the past few years, its stance on crypto-currencies is perplexing. Is it a lack of understanding, or a lack of institutional capacity, that is preventing the government from stepping up and regulating crypto-currencies? In January, the government announced that it plans to enter the global race of digital currencies or CBDCs while at the same time banning “private” crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum among others. However, in the last few months it has indicated that it will give some room to crypto-entrepreneurs and blockchain founders to continue building, developing and running new and innovative systems. As far as crypto-investors are concerned, the government has said there will be some protections under the proposed law. Despite the rude shock at the start of the Budget Session this year, the domestic crypto-universe has grown considerably. In fact, India's place in the crypto-universe is stronger today than it was prior to the proposed crypto ban. Global crypto-exchange Coinbase recently announced plans to set up shop in India, while Tiger Global Capital, which has invested in several Indian startups in recent weeks, pumped $25 million into CoinSwitch Kuber at a valuation of $500 million. At the same time, domestic crypto-exchange WazirX and blockchain developer Polygon were recently listed on Coinbase and received considerable investor attention. Despite the fact that domestic investors, startup founders and the government's favourite tech-entrepreneur Nandan Nilekani are pretty much on the same page with respect to regulating crypto-currencies as…
