Budget 2018-19

  PM calls fintech a ‘revolution that helps to achieve financial empowerment of every single citizen of the country’. Indians have shown “immense trust” in financial technology and it is the sector’s responsibility to respect them, said Prime Minister Modi on Friday as his government prepares to table before Parliament a Bill that will regulate digital currencies. “The history of currency shows tremendous evolution. As humans evolved, so did the form of our transactions,” said Modi about financial technology (fintech). He called fintech a “revolution that helps to achieve financial empowerment of every single citizen of the country”. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on November 30 the government will introduce a bill on cryptocurrencies in the Parliament after Cabinet’s approval. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official  Digital Currency Bill , 2021, seeks to “prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the ...

  The RBI remains critical of cryptocurrencies, advocating that the government ban them. Ahead of Diwali, two of Bollywood’s leading men are pitching another option during India’s annual gold shopping spree: cryptocurrencies. India’s top two crypto platforms have each tapped stars — one, Amitabh Bachchan, may be the most famous Indian actor of all time — to promote  cryptocurrencies  as a superior and easy investment ahead of Dhanteras, the auspicious first day of the holiday, when buyers traditionally splurge on gold. Indians have expanded their Diwali investments to include stocks, real estate, diamonds and other assets. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bangalore-based  CoinSwitch Kuber  and CoinDCX are touting Bitcoin as another option. In an advertisement for CoinSwitch, Ranveer Singh, star of some of the country’s biggest blockbusters, delivers a rap in Hindi about just how simple crypto trading can be. Ease, though, may not be the central concern. The Reserve...

  Bitcoin traded at around $51,300 as of 1:30 pm on Friday in Hong Kong after quintupling in the past year Bitcoin is closing in on a market value of $1 trillion, a surge that’s helping cryptocurrency returns far outstrip the performance of more traditional assets like stocks and gold. The largest token has added more than $415 billion of value in 2021 to about $956 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which includes Bitcoin and four other coins, has more than doubled. Speculators, corporate treasurers and institutional investors are thought to have stoked Bitcoin’s volatile ascent. Crypto believers are dueling with skeptics for the dominant narrative around the climb: the former see an asset being embraced for its ability to hedge risks such as inflation, while the latter sense a precarious mania riding atop waves of monetary and fiscal stimulus. FOMO — fear of missing out — may be at play, said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy with...

More than 4,200 sites were infected with a malicious version of a widely used tool known as Browsealoud from British software maker Texthelp Thousands of websites, including ones run by US and UK government agencies, were infected for several hours on Sunday with code that causes web browsers to secretly mine digital currencies, technology news site The Register reported. More than 4,200 sites were infected with a malicious version of a widely used tool known as Browsealoud from British software maker Texthelp, which reads out web pages for people with vision problems, according to The Register. The news comes amid a surge in cyber attacks using software that forces infected computers to mine cryptocurrencies on behalf of hackers. The prevalence of these schemes has increased in recent months as the volume of trading in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has surged. The tainted version of Browsealoud caused inserted software for mining the digital currency ...

While cryptocurrency technology has the potential to reshape global finance, concerns have been raised about its volatility and the potential for money laundering or other crimes The head of the World Bank compared cryptocurrencies to “Ponzi schemes,” the latest financial voice to raise questions about the legitimacy of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. “In terms of using Bitcoin or some of the cryptocurrencies, we are also looking at it, but I’m told the vast majority of cryptocurrencies are basically Ponzi schemes,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said Wednesday at an event in Washington. “It’s still not really clear how it’s going to work.” The development lender is “looking really carefully” at blockchain technology, a platform that uses so-called distributed ledgers to allow digital assets to be traded securely. There’s hope the technology could be used in developing countries to “follow the money more effectively” and reduce corruption, Kim said...