India’s chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran compared cryptocurrencies to the “world of Caribbean pirates” in the absence of regulation where “winners take it all” from somebody else, local media reported.
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- Cryptocurrencies fail to satisfy basic requirements such as having store value, widespread acceptability and unit of account, unlike fiat money, Nageswaran added.
- “I wouldn’t be very excited by [cryptocurrencies] because sometimes we are not fully aware or comprehend the kind of forces we are unleashing ourselves,” local media quoted Nageswaran. “I would be somewhat guarded in my welcome of some of these fintech-based disruptions like decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto, etc.”
- The recent Terra-LUNA meltdown is a “very important cautionary tale,” the adviser said, sending out clear warning to cryptocurrency investors.
- In May, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das doubled down on the central bank’s cautions against cryptocurrencies, following the collapse of Terra’s UST and LUNA.
- While the Indian government has not shut out crypto completely, the central bank has called for a ban on the assets on multiple occasions.
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