India’s cryptocurrency industry is celebrating a major milestone after several senior leaders from India’s ruling party and the opposition benches attended a conference on Web3 over the weekend. The conference titled “Namaste Web3” was organized by Indian exchange CoinDCX, supported by Bharat Web3 and media outlet Forbes. This event provided an opportunity to discuss India’s G-20 presidency and the potential opportunities for India in the Web3 sector.
Despite lawmakers and government officials privately having wide-ranging consultations with the industry, this was a rare public occasion that lent the space a fresh legitimacy. Among those who attended were National Vice President Baijayant Panda and former Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who have been supportive of blockchain but cautious on crypto.
During the conference, Prasad stated that “Web3 is important with a caution…come out of the shadow of crypto”. While Singhvi, who chairs the country’s parliamentary committee on commerce, said, “Web3 can be one of the biggest factors in bringing to fruition India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy.”
The blockchain narrative needs a paradigm shift from the crypto to the transformative changes that can be brought about with the application of Web3, added Singhvi. Despite the 30% tax on profit and a 1% tax deducted at source, India’s cryptocurrency industry has been struggling. The recent move to bring the industry under India’s prevention of money laundering rules has also led to a significant drop in trading volumes.
The government’s true position on crypto is still unclear, as Gaurav Gogoi, a parliamentarian from the opposition said that he was worried about the government’s true position on crypto. He hopes that the government is not telling others in the G-20 to put a 1% TDS, which could lead to a global ban.