Paytm Said to Be Open to Bitcoin Offerings Once India Legalises Crypto

Paytm is onboard with facilitating Bitcoin payments if India decides on officially legalising the crypto-space. Paytm Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora has indicated about the company’s pro-crypto approach in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV. While as of now holding and trading cryptocurrencies is not banned as such in India, but there are no federal rules to regulate it as yet. The finance ministry is working on a draft to manage the space.

“Bitcoin is still in a regulatory grey area if not a regulatory ban in India. At the moment Paytm does not do Bitcoin. If it was ever to become fully legal in the country, then clearly there could be offerings we could launch,” Deora was quoted as saying.

India’s federal finance ministry has been working on ways to structurise the crypto-space, has formed a new committee to find out if income made by cryptocurrency trading could be taxed.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is also working on launching its first official digital currency as a regulated “central bank digital currency (CBDC)” by the end of 2021.

For now, India awaits the announcement of an official Cryptocurrency Bill that will be presented before the Parliament in its upcoming Winter Session.

In recent months, the cryptocurrency space in India has witnessed expansion. In India, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Vietnam, the rate of cryptocurrency adoption rose by 880 percent in, as per a report released earlier this month.

According to a report by TechStory, around seven million Indians have invested a collective sum of over $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,380 crore) in cryptocurrencies.

Disclosure: Paytm’s parent company One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.