India’s government said it does not consider cryptocurrencies to be legal tender and will try tp phase out payments using coins such as bitcoin.
In a meeting yesterday, Mr Jaitley renewed India's commitment to ending the use of BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
The ban, he said, was India’s continuing fight against money laundering and the funding of terrorism.
He said: “The government does not recognise cryptocurrency as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these crypto assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payments system”.
And yet amid the crackdown on the bitcoin crypto token, the Minster outlined his bold plan to push India’s economy into the digital age by “exploring the use of blockchain technology”.