Indian crypto exchange WazirX witnesses sudden crash after crypto ban FUD

India’s most trusted crypto exchange WazirX app, witnessed a huge crypto sell-off following the decision of the government to regulate crypto by bringing a new cryptocurrency bill in the Parliament to ban private crypto tokens. 

As TheCoinRise reported recently, the regulatory bodies are taking interest and getting serious about adopting digital assets in India in a regulated manner. Prime minister Narendra Modi has also invited democratic countries to join hands to work together on this subject before it gets in “wrong hands” and “spoils the youth.”

Recently, the Parliament announced that the government had released a list of 26 bills to get presented for voting in a few days. The recent crash occurred when investors got to know that the list also includes Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, which will ban all “private tokens.” The officials before this, also met crypto enthusiasts to talk about crypto and its potential.

The price of Bitcoin went down by around 15%, with other major currencies, including Ether and Cardano going down by double digits.

WazirX CEO says innovation will win

The new bill states that all private cryptocurrencies will be banned as the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, is bringing its own CBDC. The sources didn’t disclose anything about the possible exceptions. Whether this is the right way to regulate crypto or not, still needs to be figured out.

Many investors in fear took all their money out, which resulted in the WazirX app crash. Multiple users shared the screenshots of the app, saying that they were not able to buy or sell crypto on the platform. WazirX tweeted that the app has been restored, and everything is working fine now. It also informed that the crash was caused by heavy user activity after the proposed regulation became public.

Before this, the authorities also said that they are considering crypto as an asset class in India which implied that there is less scope of it becoming a payment method in recent days.

WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty informed that more than 1.5 million people in India invested in crypto and tweeted:

“All of us want regulation. We’ve been pushing for it for the last 1000+ days. Finally, when the regulation process has begun, why panic? We need to have faith in our lawmakers. There’ll be discussions & deliberations. Ultimately, innovation will win.”