Cryptocurrency exchanges are in talks with the government for working out regulations on the daily deposit and withdrawal activities of investors.
CoinSwitch, one of the top digital assets exchanges in the country, has said its cryptocurrencies' deposit and withdrawal functions will remain disabled until regulations are put into place.
The exchange said this after a few investors complained on Twitter about not being able to access their accounts for the past few weeks.
In response to complaints, CoinSwitch tweeted, saying, "the crypto deposit/withdrawal function will remain disabled until we bring in the regulation, as we are already in talks with regulators and policymakers."
Hey Harkirat, we completely understand where you come from. However, the crypto deposit/withdrawal function will remain disabled until we bring in the regulation, as we are already in talks with regulators and policymakers.
That development adds to a long list of uncertainty about the outcome of the proposed digital assets legislation outcome.
The bill is delayed, with reports suggesting the government will wait for a global consensus before enlisting it in the Parliament.
While there is no official data on cryptocurrency investments and transactions in India, a conservative estimate suggests around 20 million investors with roughly $6 billion in holdings, with a large market base yet to be tapped into.
Industry experts believe that reforms to the bill with more comprehensive consultations can make India a crypto hub and forefront of blockchain tech.
While the government had previously said it aims to promote underlying technologies such as blockchain, in the budget, the government imposed a steep 30 per cent tax on income from trade in cryptocurrencies and a 1 per cent TDS levy on every such transaction, starting from April 1, 2022.
That decision was announced in the union budget for 2022-23 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Also, the new tax clarification that digital assets' losses incurred in a transaction cannot be offset from profits made through another transaction has received a lot of criticism.
(Disclaimer: Coinswitch is an advertiser on the NDTV Network)
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