Industry executives say China’s ban could benefit India’s crypto sector

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently announced that all crypto activity except possession was illegal. The guideline, released on September 15, was posted online on Friday.

Reacting to the news, most cryptocurrencies fell to $41,018.41 along with bitcoin, according to digital currency price and information data platform Coingecko. The altcoin took a very deep cut with Ether falling to the $2,700 level.

Experts say China’s crackdown on the cryptocurrency may be partly because it seeks to dethrone its competitors from the digital yuan, which would be controlled by the government.

According to Kapil Rathi, founder of Crosstower, India has a huge opportunity to benefit from China’s crackdown on the crypto industry. “China forcing such innovation and advancement is for the benefit of India, and the country should now embrace this new technology with open arms. Crypto can make India a global leader in this new technology,” he said.

Rathi believes that China is choosing to control innovation.

WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty said: “Crypto has great potential to create more opportunities and contribute to our vision of a $5 trillion economy. Countries around the world are working towards crypto positive regulations and I believe that India will not adopt a regressive approach that may set us back by decades.”

This is not the first time China has issued such guidance to curb the crypto industry. In the past, the country banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), bitcoin transactions, and most recently, the mining of bitcoin.

According to Satwik Viswanath, co-founder and CEO of Unocoin, India certainly has a lot to learn from how it operates in China.

“It is sad to see that around 20% of the world’s population does not have access to free transactions on the Internet. On the other hand, with crypto being entirely on the internet, it would be impossible for China to impose such a ban,” Viswanath said.

In terms of prices, cryptocurrencies have been able to recover losses and make gains in the past, despite many restrictions in China. On Saturday also, the cryptocurrency saw a slight correction, with Bitcoin returning to the $43,000 level and Ether closing the $3,000 level.

“This news (China sanctions) has led to a fall in crypto prices across the world including India, which is a common phenomenon following any news that creates fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). However, I am impressed by the Indian crypto ecosystem. But it doesn’t seem to have any long-term effects,” Shetty said.