Government documents from 2019 were cited by an Indian crypto expert to suggest that a proposed ban on all “private cryptocurrencies” could include almost any electronic money.

The Indian government announced this week that it will officially adopt cryptocurrencies and digital currency law regulations in 2021 when convened at the winter session on November 29th.

The draft law seeks a legislative vote on the creation of an official digital currency and at the same time imposes a ban on “all private cryptocurrencies”. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion as to what exactly constitutes a “private cryptocurrency” with some users speculating that it might refer to “privacy” coins like Monero or Zcash.

CoinCrunch India’s founder, Naimish Sanghvi, stated in an interview on the 25th. He says:

“The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ 2019 report on cryptocurrencies basically states that anything that is not sovereign is referred to as private cryptocurrency.”

“And by that logic, that means Bitcoin and Ethereum fall into that definition,” he said, adding that “everything that is issued by the government is public and everything by private actors.” Publications are all public. “

It looks like all cryptocurrencies will be banned in India. Some people consider private cryptocurrency to be Monero, ZCash, etc. Not that way. You mean all. https://t.co/Bx4dyX5M0u

– ciarán.eth (@ C1aranMurray) November 24, 2021

The Recommended 2019 report recommends that “all private cryptocurrencies, with the exception of cryptocurrencies that may be issued by the government, be banned in India”. It says:

“All of these cryptocurrencies were created by non-governmental institutions and in this sense are purely private companies.”

However, the chief marketing officer of the Indian crypto exchange WazirX Rohit Kundliwal has called for calm and downplayed fears of an outright ban.

In a LinkedIn post yesterday Kundliwal pointed out that cryptocurrencies cannot be banned, only regulated and that there is no clarity about what constitutes a private cryptocurrency.

He added: “Shri Narendra Modi, Nirmala Sitaraman, the Treasury and many well-known and sensible politicians have repeatedly said to themselves that there will be no comprehensive ban on cryptocurrencies.”

Meanwhile, Indian MP Shiv Sena Priyanka Vickram Chaturvedi said on Jan. interview India said at the moment that the proposed ban is a “step backwards and too late”. She speaks:

“The ban on private cryptocurrencies essentially puts an end to the whole idea of ​​a new fintech technology that could turn out to be an important source of employment and supply for the new economy.”

She said the government needs to “create an environment for growth and prosperity. The effect of doing this is you kill this whole room.

Related: India plans to cut GST payment for crypto exchange fees from 18% to 1%

The market has reacted significantly to news of a possible ban, with prices on Indian crypto exchange WazirX plummeting at 3:30 a.m. UTC on Wednesday morning as users scrambled to sell their assets. The panic sell-off resulted in the prices of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) falling in double digits locally.

On November 18, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on all democratic countries to work together on regulating cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, to “ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands” can spoil our youth.