Regulate cryptocurrency

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das seldom gives cryptic replies. But at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, his first response to a query on the future of cryptocurrency in India was exactly that — “very bad”. Just days after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (US SEC) approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the governor said, “they (the US SEC) are responsible for their nation’s well-being, and we for ours.” The RBI has time and again stuck to its stand against cryptocurrencies, saying they could lead to tax evasion, decentralised peer-to-peer (P2P) activities and loss of “seigniorage” income — the profit earned by a central bank from money creation.