India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, seems to finally be clarifying its stance on financial services for cryptocurrency-related businesses. In response to a right to information request, the RBI clarified that there are no restrictions on banks preventing them from providing an account to cryptocurrency companies or traders. The request was initially filed by Harish BV, a cofounder of local cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin. The Supreme Court’s decision on the crypto ban wasn’t the end In 2018, the RBI released a statement restricting all regulated entities including banks from dealing with any organization or individual traders transacting in cryptocurrencies. …

Top Stories This Week FinCEN Takes First Enforcement Action Against Peer-to-Peer Cryptocurrency Exchanger In an apparent first, the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has given a penalty to a California resident who has been accused of wilfully violating money transmission laws as a peer-to-peer virtual currency exchanger. The department noted that the move marks its first such enforcement action, thus setting a precedent. The defendant — Eric Powers of Kern County, California — has been fined $35,000 and debarred from future work that qualifies as a money services business. The fine came from the determination that Powers violated …

Indian cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin has fired half its staff, leaving the company with 14 workers, Indian daily news outlet The Economic Times reported on April 16. Citing regulatory uncertainty in the industry, Unocoin said it had made the decision prior to a Supreme Court hearing on cryptocurrency’s legal status in India, set for July. As Cointelegraph reported, exchanges in the country have faced a moratorium on banking services since the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), implemented a ban on dealings with crypto businesses last year. The industry is in the process of fighting RBI’s decision, which has …

The co-founder of Indian crypto exchange Unocoin has been arrested shortly after setting up an allegedly unregistered Bitcoin (BTC) ATM machine in Bangalore, English-language daily Times of India reports Oct. 24. The 37-year-old co-founder, Harish BV, was apprehended by police after having reportedly installed the ATM kiosk at Kemp Fort Mall on Old Airport Road, together with fellow Unocoin co-founder Sathvik Viswanath. The latter has not been arrested, as per media reports. Indian business magazine Business Today (BT) cites a press statement from the Central Crime Branch (CCB), which claims the ATM installation did not receive “any permission from the …

Tech investor Tim Draper, whose recent re-entry to India’s market was prompted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to crackdown on corruption, nevertheless criticized India’s negative stance on cryptocurrencies during an interview with The Economic Times published yesterday, April 6. Draper had returned to the Indian market in February 2017 - having exited it in 2016 due to a perceived lack of “rule of law” prompting Draper Fisher Jurvetson to sell their entire Indian portfolio - when the Mumbai-based startup backer Blume Ventures joined the Draper Venture Network. India’s central bank had announced on April 5 that they would no …