Exchanges line up calls with investors
Sachin.Dave@timesgroup.com
Mumbai:
Private equity firms and strategic investors who have pumped in millions of dollars in Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are getting jittery after the government decided to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the upcoming Winter session.
The wording of the Lok Sabha bulletin released late on Tuesday has spooked both investors as well as venture capitalists. The Bill seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India but allows for “certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology and its uses”.
Over the last few days, leading cryptocurrency exchanges have rushed to organise calls and meetings to calm investors. Insiders say all the top exchanges — Coinswitch Kuber, CoinDCX and WazirX — have lined up calls with investors, including strategic ones.
“The main concern that’s being raised is, whether anything is different this time around, and what is the strategy going ahead. We do not think the government will completely ban crypto assets and that’s what we told the investors during the calls,” said a promoter at one of the exchanges.
“Investors do understand the regulatory landscape in India that continues to be the same for the past few years. The confusion that has emerged a couple of days ago may remain for about four weeks,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO of Unocoin.
