“The risk which worries me more on the non-governmental domain is unhosted wallets through which this entire (crypto) operation takes place across the globe. So regulating cannot be done by a single country within its terrain through some effective method. Technology doesn't have a solution which would be acceptable to various sovereigns,” Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a panel discussion organised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 18. The discussion saw participation from Roberto Campos Neto, President, Central Bank of Brazil; Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF; and Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It was moderated by Gillian Tett, chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large (US) of the Financial Times. She batted for a unified approach toward regulations in order to keep an eye on issues related to money laundering. “I harp on that very much because I think the biggest risk for all countries across the board will be on the money laundering aspect and also on the aspect of currency being used for financing terror.” — Sitharaman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comments suggest that the Indian government continues to remain circumspect about the benefits of cryptocurrencies. They also indicate that India may be looking for a collective response to the question of crypto regulations. What else did the panellists discuss? ‘Needed a paper trail’ When asked about India’s move to tax crypto assets, Sitharaman explained that the government was not sure if the FATF’s money trail was being tracked in…
