Policy muddle ruins year 2019 for crypto, blockchain industry

While the government and RBI had shown concern against the proliferation of private digital currencies, their interest on the subject has been lukewarm, said Sathvik Vishwanathan, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.

BENGALURU/MUMBAI: The cryptocurrency and blockchain industry has had a not-so-great 2019 in India and elsewhere due to lack of favourable regulations and hostile central banks, but things may change in the coming years, say experts.

The year began with shutdowns of cryptocurrency exchanges and layoffs. But with global giants, including Facebook, entering the space and several countries examining the virtual currency and the blockchain technology behind it, and the industry itself lookin ..

The interest in crypto trading and engineering new innovations in the space has only risen in India, said Ramani Ramachandran, the CEO of Singapore-based crypto firm ZPX.

“There are pronouncements of these kind (against private digital currencies) but on the ground level there are a bunch of companies coming up.”

While the government and RBI had shown concern against the proliferation of private digital currencies, their interest on the subject has been lukewarm, said Sathvik V ..