India’s “Cryptocurrency and Regulator of Official Digital Currency” bill will generate a facilitative framework for the Reserve Bank of India to issue an official digital currency and ban most private cryptocurrencies. The approach will create obstacles for thousands of peer-to-peer currencies that are currently thriving outside of regulatory scrutiny. 

Following the news, the price of bitcoin dropped by 1.19% and, according to coinmarketcap.com, was trading at $56,615.97 at 12pm CET on Wednesday. 

However, the announcement by the Indian government was not wholly unexpected. Earlier this month, prime minister Narendra Modi said that all democratic nations must work together to ensure cryptocurrency “does not end up in wrong hands, which can spoil our youth.” 

Earlier in the year, the Indian government considered criminalising the possession, issuance, trading, mining, and transference of crypto assets. According to Reuters, the government plans to ban private crypto assets while simultaneously paving the way for a new Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which the government plans to launch by December this year.