Cryptocurrency Prices Decline In India

Dialogues in India concerning the cryptocurrency ban has resulted in traders engaging in panic selling on WazirX, a major cryptocurrency platform. This spontaneous change in trading pattern has resulted to a decline in top crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether.

After the Indian parliament meeting, Cryptocurrency prices in India tumbled. During the conference, The parliament announced the introduction and listing of 26 new bills in the Winter Session. The proposed bill consisted of the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021.

A mass sell-off on WazirX on Wednesday morning at 3:30 am UTC tanked the price of Bitcoin from nearly 4,600,000 Indian rupees ($61,820.73) to 3,917,659 rupees ($52,650.55), a drop of 14.8% within two hours. Similarly, other popular tokens, including Ether and Cardano (ADA), experienced double-digit price depreciation locally on the exchange.

According to reports, WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty explained that the Indian crypto market usually trades at a premium compared to the global market.

His words “This event of panic selling has led the Indian market to correct and the prices to reach the global level.”

Shetty also pointed out the various use cases of cryptocurrencies as an asset or utility and quoted former Finance Secretary of India Subhash Chandra Garg’s suggestion that “there should be a prohibition on the ‘currency’ use case of crypto,” if any.

Jay Hao, CEO of crypto exchange OKEx, said the need for a nuanced approach toward regulating crypto assets in India.

“India is home to the highest number of crypto owners in the world, and the onus lies on the government to protect the interest of a large number of crypto investors in the country.”

Commenting on India’s crypto ban, BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler said, “This ban won’t work in the long-term and would be a step backwards,” adding that “banning is not an option to protect investor interest.” 

“The thing with cryptocurrency is that while governments may try to ban it or try to contain it, the very decentralized nature of the technology somewhat prohibits that.”

As a final word of advice to Indian inventors, Shetty believes in the need to have faith in our lawmakers. “Let’s not panic,” he concluded.

This comes after a parliamentary panel discussion on cryptocurrency on Nov. 15 where a plurality of regulators concluded that, although crypto can’t be stopped, it should be regulated more heavily.