Ripple has released policy paper “The Path Forward for Digital Assets Adoption in India” in a bid to provide Indian policymakers with similar recommendations.
This comes after India’s Supreme Court delivered an historic verdict in the “Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) versus the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)” case, enabling millions of Indians to invest, buy and sell digital assets through bank accounts safely and responsibly—promising a new era for digital asset technology in India. The verdict offers policymakers the opportunity to develop a thoughtful and globally aligned regulatory framework for the digital assets ecosystem in India.
Ripple’s policy paper offers an overview of the global digital assets landscape and proposed measures policymakers may implement over the short and medium term to enact a comprehensive digital asset policy in India, including:
- Adopt a digital asset taxonomy consistent with global practice—providing clarity to the legal character of digital assets.
- Enact a facilitative legal framework for digital asset service providers at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in the short term—to attract mature global participants to GIFT for developing enterprise use-cases of digital assets.
- Modify RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox Framework to remove “cryptocurrency” and “crypto asset services” from the negative list—thereby offering service providers an opportunity to test the value proposition of this new technology in the Indian context.
- Implement a conducive regulatory framework for digital assets by amending specific financial sector laws—for example, empower the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to license, regulate and supervise digital asset service providers.
Around the world, many governments and policy makers are working together to establish clear regulation. Regions, including the U.K., Singapore, Switzerland and Abu Dhabi have in place digital asset market frameworks that both support innovation and address risk. For example, the U.K. FCA recently issued a guidance classifying digital assets to provide regulatory clarity for market participants carrying on activities in this space.
