Union Finance Minister says, Money laundering, terror financing biggest concerns around cryptocurrency
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated on Monday, April 18, that the main danger associated with cryptocurrencies is that they might be used for money laundering and terror funding, adding to the already shaky cryptocurrency sector in India.
Sitharaman said, “Biggest risk of cryptocurrency could be money laundering and its use for financing terror.”
“I think regulation using technology is the only answer. Regulation using technology will have to be so adept, that it has to be not behind the curve, but be sure that it is on top of it. And that’s not possible if any one country thinks that it can handle it. It has to be across the board,” the Union Finance Minister said.
Sitharaman highlighted India’s digital performance and the government’s efforts to develop a digital infrastructure foundation over the previous decade, citing the rise in digital use during the epidemic as an example.
“If I use 2019 data, the digital adoption rate in India is about 85%. But globally, it was only somewhere near 64% the same year. So the pandemic time actually helped us to test and prove for ourselves that it is simple to use, common people can use it, and adoption actually was proven,” Sitharaman asserted.
Sitharaman attended an event at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, DC, on Monday in addition to her formal engagements with the World Bank, IMF, G20, and Financial Action Task Force.
On April 24, Sitharaman will go to San Francisco to meet with business executives and Stanford University academics and students. On April 27, she will go to India.
