In the global melee of coronavirus response, the government of India is in a unique position.
With the nation now on a 21-day lockdown, it remains to be seen how India’s leaders are going to grapple with the economic uncertainty and financial fallout from closures.
As tech media has reported, the Indian Supreme Court was considering a full ban on cryptocurrency within the country, but that failed to happen, and now some think the floodgates are open for Indian buyers to get involved in cryptocurrency markets.
“The decision by India’s Supreme Court to lift the central bank’s ban on cryptocurrency trading could soon translate into notable growth in trading volumes, according to cryptocurrency exchanges in the country,” wrote Omkar Godbole at Coindesk earlier this month. “A sharp rise in volumes cannot be ruled out in India, a country with a population of over 1 billion. The Supreme Court judgment could help erase the misconception that cryptocurrencies are illegal and may draw more investors to the market.”
Some investors in India may find this to be exactly the right time to start participating in blockchain assets as a safe haven from equities.
As with so many of these financial stories, the news of the day, in some ways, comes back to the United States with its central-bank activity working to prop up one of the world’s largest national economies.
“The sheer scale of the Fed’s response to the COVID-19 crisis is both unprecedented and causing ripple effects around the world as the U.S. dollar functions as the world’s reserve currency. Other countries, primarily G-7 countries, have even begun ramping up fiscal and monetary stimulus of their own,” writes Andrew Rossow today at Cointelegraph. “Naturally, the deluge of money into the global economy raises questions about the origin of its value, which the Fed would tell you is just adjusting a few digits on its balance sheet. However, crypto enthusiasts have a more keen eye for the potential impact of unfettered money creation.”
Will Indian buyers hoover up Bitcoin or various altcoins as fiat markets contract and spasm? We’ll see.
