Cryptocurrency (including bitcoin) Ban - Illegal in India from Budget 2018

As part of budget 2018 speech in parliament, India's finance minister shri Arun Jaitley has declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal in the context of India.

This declaration has huge implcations for lot of investors who have been investing heavily in different cryptocurrecny (primarily Bitcoin) over last year. The sudden rally in cryptocurrency price has increased its demand and lot n lot of people in India have started investing in it to gain mutli-folds return. But legal aspect of these transactions were not clear and with budget 2018 speech by shri Arun Jaitley, bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions have been banned.

Govt does not consider crypto-currency as legal; will take all measures against its illegal use: FM Arun Jaitley

Implications - Practical implications of this ban this still emerging as we get more details about it. We will update this article with more n more details.

Why illegal / why Ban -- Lot of people have been asking that when trading in stock market is legal, then why trading in bitcoin should be made illegal. Please note that bitcoin trading at the moment is more akin to gambling than stock market trading. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency are heavily used for illegal purposes (incuding drugs and terrorism) and this make it tough for indian government to look at it in a postive manner.