6 things Piyush Goyal said about cryptocurrency at WEF Davos 2022
It took a while for the Indian government to warm up to the idea of cryptocurrencies or the emerging new Metaverse media. And when the Indian government did address it, it responded by taxing the income generated from trading in cryptocurrency... at 30%!
So, what's the latest? Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal was at the World Economic Forum 2022 in Davos, Switzerland, leading the Indian delegation on the International stage. India Today TV’s Rahul Kanwal caught up with the minister for a chit chat.
Regarding cryptocurrencies, Goyal highlighted a few points that crypto enthusiasts in India need to note:
- Piyush Goyal said that it was not a policy challenge, but an opportunity.
- India is engaged with blockchain technology.
- India’s talent pool is serving the world when it comes to building blockchain technology.
- However, the world knows that cryptocurrencies cannot be accepted without due diligence.
- India is working on a digital currency, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the helm.
- Unregulated cryptocurrency will not become an alternate payment mechanism in India.
Crypto at Davos: Entrepreneurs from the cryptocurrency world took to the stage to explain the emerging new media. From India, crypto app CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal said that the Indian government needs to establish rules on cryptocurrencies to protect investors and resolve the uncertainty.
India and Crypto: After months and years of speculation around what the Indian government will do about cryptocurrencies and fears of a ban, the government decided to tax 30% on all profits made from cryptocurrencies, NFTs, etc, with a TDS of 1%. For investors, it was bittersweet news. While taxes burned a hole in the profit margin of investors, it also signalled the government’s acceptance of cryptocurrencies, allaying fears of a complete ban.
Besides that, when Goyal says India is a talent pool for the world for blockchain development, he’s not all wrong. One of the most popular and free-to-use/mint blockchain is Polygon on Ethereum, which was founded in India in 2017 by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal and Anurag Arjun.
What now: The trillion-dollar crypto crash of 2022 turned billionaires into “no longer billionaires” overnight. The massive crash was months in the making as a result of the price crash of stablecoin TerraUSD and its sister coin LUNA. Small and big investors alike lost a great deal of fortune. But the crash came as a wake-up call to crypto enthusiasts and humbled the soaring prices of the digital coins.