The National Payments Commission of India (NPCI) said it will not ban cryptocurrency transactions. It said it is up to the banks in the country to take a decision on this issue and such a decision should be based on legal and compliance requirements. Some cryptocurrency exchanges in the country had earlier complained that payment gateways were blocking their transactions. ICICI Bank, for instance, had reportedly told some of its payment operators to shut off its net banking services for merchants involved in buying or selling cryptocurrencies, either directly or indirectly. The Supreme Court had recently set aside an RBI circular that stipulated that entities regulated by the RBI are prohibited from “providing any service in relation to virtual currencies, including those of transfer or receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of virtual currencies”.
