IAMAI News: Internet body to dismantle Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council
According to two sources familiar with the development, IAMAI decided to distance itself from cryptocurrency.
The discussion on the dismantling of the BACC – established in 2017 – was ongoing for some time in the midst of the growing conflict between the central bank and crypto exchanges over the legal status of the virtual currency in India. Recently, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said cryptocurrencies were a “clear danger”.
“Last week, the decision was made to dismantle the BACC. It did not work between the stock exchanges and the trade association, in the middle of clear instructions from RBI that their views had not changed on crypto, “said a person who was informed about the case to ET.
IAMAI did not respond to ET’s request.
BACC – an industrial body – served as an umbrella unit for over a dozen crypto and blockchain companies to liaise with the authorities and advance their interests. Leading cryptocurrency exchanges, including WazirX, CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber were part of it.
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These exchanges, as part of the BACC, have made several representations on behalf of the IAMAI in recent years to the Ministry of Finance and the government, amid growing concern, scrutiny and stricter tax standards from the government.
IAMAI was established in 2004 and is a lobby group that represents the interests of the digital service industry and has over 400 Indian and multinational companies as members. Online gaming, digital payments, fintech, digital commerce, edtech are some of the sectors it represents.
Google India’s Vice President and CEO Sanjay Gupta is the Chairman of the Board of IAMAI, and Facebook India’s Vice President and CEO Ajit Mohan is the Deputy Chairman.
BACC functioned as a self-regulatory body for the crypto industry that still falls under a legal gray area. Among other things, the body introduced a standard code of conduct for all crypto platforms to follow, which will probably be updated to avoid run-in with the regulators, ET reported earlier this year.
“Businesses will continue to do what they do,” said one of the sources quoted above.
There is a feeling among the crypto exchanges that they have developed enough policy power to communicate with the regulators. CoinDCX recently hired Kiran Vivekananda as head of public policy and government affairs, and Coinswitch Kuber appointed R Venkatesh senior vice president of public policy.
The person quoted above said that the BACC may continue to exist separately from the IAMAI as the policy remains a key area of concern for the industry and the stock exchanges want to work on it collectively.
