‘Very likely’ India’s hostility towards crypto changing: Unocoin CEO

Sathvik Viswanath, the CEO and co-founder of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin, expects the hostility shown towards the crypto space by Indian regulators to change.

Viswanath told Modern Consensus on Dec. 3 that the situation for the crypto industry in India is not as grim as many believe it to be. He even claimed:

“Given the growth in the number of [crypto] investors, job and innovation opportunities, it is very likely that the government […] will eventually change the prospect of crypto in India.”

As Modern Consensus reported in mid-September, Indian lawmakers were planning to introduce laws that would entirely prohibit cryptocurrency trading in the country. Still, the law under consideration was to be voted on during the winter parliamentary session, which was scheduled to run from from Dec. 7 to Dec. 11. However, that parliamentary meeting was canceled due to the ongoing pandemic. 

Besides, the bill that has been tabled is past its sell-by date Viswanath explained:

“The bill that many are talking about today is essentially the same bill as that 2.5 years ago. Compared to the pace at which the crypto industry is growing, it is rather outdated. There needs to be a new set of draft regulations for the country, with a new committee constituted to study the present developments, including the regulatory approach taken in other countries.”

Viswanath expects the growing number of local people involved with crypto examples set by other countries and changes in the crypto ecosystem to result in the Indian government’s view of cryptocurrencies to change. 

Considering that Unocoin launched its exchange this week, Viswanath is betting that the future of India’s crypto trading industry is bright.

Viswanath also believes that India “has a key role to play” in the development of the global crypto scene, as the number of cryptocurrency businesses and trading volumes are growing despite government hostility. He also expects the recent adoption of Bitcoin by United States institutional investors to influence India:

“With the trend in India having a tendency to take after developed countries, we believe the recent involvement of institutional investors in the U.S. crypto space lately, will eventually manifest itself in India. To capitalizse on the potential opportunities ahead, we have expanded ourselves into an exchange to support both retail and institutionals investors.”