India lacks Crypto laws, Bitcoin called ‘Refined Hawala’ by SC bench

Most recently, the Supreme Court of India said the nation doesn’t have clear laws, rules, and regulations to handle cryptocurrencies. The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said the lack of proper regulations is creating confusion and could allow people to misuse digital currencies. The panel made this comment while hearing the bail request of Shailesh Babulal Bhatt, who has been behind bars since August 2023 for allegedly doing illegal Bitcoin trading. Over the same the attorney of Mr. Babulal, Mukul Rohatgi the senior advocate at Supreme Court argued that Bitcoin trading isn’t illegal in India.While arguing he referred to the decision of the court where the ban of Reserve Bank of India was cancelled which was seeking to stop banks from working with crypto businesses. Referring to this, Mukul said there are no clear laws that restrict the trading of Bitcoin in India, and says that trading Bitcoin is a crime. Bitcoin trading is a ‘refined way of hawala’ in India While responsible, Justice Surya Kant said he is not fully aware of how Bitcoin works, and has expressed concern that without proper rules and regulations from the government, Bitcoin trading seems like a ‘refined way of Hawala.’ In simple words, Hawala is an illegal process of money transfer in which the sender bypasses banks and other regular money transmission methods, which further makes it hard for authorities to track the sent amount. The majority of the time, the money sent or received through this hawala is used for terror funding, gambling, illegal arms deals, money laundering, and other activities that are fully banned by the government of any nation. While hearing the bench mentioned that this isn’t the 1st time it has been hearing a case of digital currency, two years ago in a similar crypto-related case, the Court had summoned the Central Government over its clear stance on digital currencies. Yet the Court is still in difficulty as it hasn’t got any clarity over the same, leaving them in uncertainty. Despite a clear stance on digital assets, the government of India has imposed a 30% tax on profit from crypto with a 1% TDS. Earlier in 2023, crypto was placed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA), following which offshore exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin have registered with the authorities to remain compliant. Crypto market price updates As of writing, the crypto market cap was $2.92 trillion with a slight loss of 0.77%, and the trading volume is up by 14.17%, reaching $63.45 billion. The crypto fear and greed index was at 50, indicating neutrality in the wider market sentiment. Bitcoin is still below $95k with a market cap at $1.87 trillion, with a slight decline of 0.56%, Similarly, Ethereum is trading below the mark of $2,000 with a weekly decline of 2.60%.