India is not a country where the financial or monetary freedom of its citizens is considered to be a worthwhile value to protect by its government. Honestly, I'm surprised it took them this long to ban Bitcoin. It's almost as if they only now realized that it's the logical next step in rendering their entire population destitute slaves, after the cash ban instituted last year.
A quick reminder on said cash ban. Last year, India shockingly and suddenly banned pretty much all cash notes from circulation. ₹500 and ₹1000 were nullifued, leaving only 14% of the previous total cash value in notes outstanding. Citizens were given an ultimatum time by which notes had to be turned in. This announcement lead to an immediate dump of approximately 6% in the Indian markets. As usual, the government claimed this was an action to "fight money laundering and tax evasion", yet provided no proof it would help in either of those endeavors, let alone justification for curtailing the rights of legal citizens and destroying cash businesses.
Let us not forget, those "largest" of Indian bills which were demonetized were only worth $7 and $14, respectively. Imagine all cash being demonetized in the USA except for maybe quarters and below - that's what this was to Indians.
Back to the present, India finally realized they could close the loop on cryptocurrencies and ban them as well. This would further prevent citizens from being able to control their finances. By forcing everyone into digital currency, centralized governments can use their endless printing presses and financial repression to set any (real) interest rate they want via inflation, then cover it up with official statistics. This way, they can shadow tax the entire population every year with a massive negative real interest rate. It's national wealth confiscation, done secretly enough that 95% of people won't notice.
You know, like the CPI in the US.
Anyway, the crypto market is completely ignoring this "news". Perhaps it was expected, but more likely is the fact that few of the funds that constitute cryptocurrency market caps are like to be from India, and even those that are would be unlikely to immediately panic-sell back into a national currency they can now no longer get back to crypto from.
All this will achieve is cutting Indian citizens off from the opportunities (and risks) of the crypto space, infantilizing them.
I am not a fan.
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