India’s Payment Giant Paytm May Add Bitcoin If Government Legalizes Crypto

The largest digital payments company in India, Paytm, would consider adding Bitcoin trading to its offerings if the government clears regulatory confusion regarding crypto.

Paytm Will Consider Offering Bitcoin Trading If The Indian Government Legalizes Crypto

As per a report from Bloomberg, Paytm has expressed interest in adding Bitcoin trading to the platform. However, the government first needs to make regulation regarding cryptocurrencies clear before they considering doing so.

Founded in 2010, the company has established itself as India’s pioneer payment platform. The name “Paytm” is an abbreviation for “pay through mobile.”

Besides digital payments, the platform’s offerings also include ecommerce and finance. According to the company, around 20 million merchants use their QR code for accepting payments directly into their bank accounts.

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The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Madhur Deora, said in an interview to Bloomberg TV, “Bitcoin is still in a regulatory grey area if not a regulatory ban in India.”

“At the moment Paytm does not do Bitcoin. If it was ever to become fully legal in the country then clearly there could be offerings we could launch,” continues Deora.

Over the last couple of years, the Indian government has changed its stance regarding crypto multiple times, making investors confused about the regulatory rules surrounding it.

Related Reading | Indian Cryptocurrency Exchanges To Appeal Retail Traders With Aggressive Marketing Campaigns

At one point, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the nation’s central bank, had effectively banned Bitcoin trading in the country. But in March 2020, the courts reversed the prohibitions.

The Indian government has since considered adopting proper regulation regarding these digital currencies. However, till now nothing definitive has come out about their legislation.

Institutions between the government itself have conflicting views on Bitcoin. The RBI is still highly critical of crypto and advocates for its ban.

Nonetheless, despite the regulatory uncertainty, India has been leading the crypto adoption race as some data estimates 100 million holders in the country.

The news about Paytm comes as the company looks to open public subscriptions to its initial public offering (IPO) next week.

BTC Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $62k, up 1% in the last seven days. Over the past month, the crypto has gained 24% in value.

Here is a chart that shows the trend in the price of BTC over the last five days:

BTC's price has moved rather sideways in the last few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView

Bitcoin had seemed to make some recovery a few days ago as the crypto jumped above $63k, but since then the coin’s price has declined again, and thus overall the trend has been rather sideways.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com