Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi has asked the mutual funds houses not to invest in crypto assets until there is a proper crypto regulation in India.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman, Ajay Tyagi, mentioned on Tuesday that the market regulator doesn’t want mutual fund houses to get involved or invest in any sort of crypto asset-based new fund offers (NFOs) till the time, Government of India comes out with the legislations of the Crypto Regulation Bill.
Till date, there is no governing body for crypto investment in India nor there are any rules and regulations related to it. It is also not clear if there are any taxes involved with crypto investments.
Tyagi made the announcement after the recent incident of the asset management company (AMC), Invesco Mutual Fund. Last month despite Sebi’s approval, it delayed its blockchain fund due to legislative uncertainty.
Invesco CoinShares Global Blockchain ETF Fund of Fund (FoF) was the first scheme in India that got approval from Sebi that offers exposure to global companies to participate in the blockchain ecosystem. The scheme was originally scheduled to open for subscription on 24 November.
Recently, there have been talks around regulating cryptocurrencies as it was one of the topics of discussion in the winter session of the Parliament. It gathered further pace in the recent past after a parliamentary standing committee on finance met cryptocurrency stakeholders on Monday to identify various opportunities and challenges that could come in crypto financing and investment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also had chaired a meeting, where he spoke about the loopholes of having an unregulated crypto market in India.
The cryptocurrency regulation bill was supposed to be introduced during the winter session of the Parliament in the just-concluded session, but it has been on hold as of now, as the government wants to have further discussions before introducing the bill.
Despite various research reports and cautions from experts that highlight the probable threats from crypto and how it may affect the economy, there has been a growing interest among the masses in India regarding this digital currency.
Various business tycoons like Mukesh Ambani are in favour of the bill as they believe it will help the institutional investors in India to participate in the crypto market.