Tag Archives: should

RBI should hold debates, discussions before any crypto decision: Experts + Anndy Lian’s additional comments

RBI should hold debates, discussions before any crypto decision: Experts + Anndy Lian’s additional comments

Additional comments that I have given to the editors: 

In a big country like India there are many conflicts of interest. Banning cryptocurrencies is not the way forward. It could be an easy way out for now. I would encourage them to need to find a way to embrace it and build a different and hopefully better future with this form of currency.

If they understand cryptocurrencies well enough, they will know that regulating a basket of crypto that can be almost 100 percent traceable is not difficult. In fact, it allows you to reduce and avoid macroeconomic instability from their legacy systems.

Education and awareness is the key to moving forward. Investors, in general, must know what they are investing in and be cautioned at all stages when dealing with cryptocurrencies.

 

– Anndy Lian

 

RBI should hold debates, discussions before any crypto decision: Experts

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been a stringent critic of crypto assets, reiterating its tough stand on the new age asset class.

Deputy governor T Rabi Sankar called for an outright ban on private cryptocurrencies at the IBA Banking Technology Awards. He claimed the notorious early 20th century Ponzi schemes were better than investing cryptos.

Prior to this, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said that private cryptos are a serious threat to macroeconomic and financial stability, and investors should keep risks in mind as such assets have no underlying value whatsoever, ‘not even a tulip’.

The harsh remarks from the central bank has vexed the crypto industry. They suggested the RBI hold debates and discussions at various forums before making a final conclusion.

Rahat Beri, Founder and CEO, Acryptoverse, a crypto advisory firm said that cryptos are a budding technology and an asset class that should have the freedom to be explored with guardrails. “Otherwise we risk being left behind.”

“Stablecoins are backed by currency, assets or other projects. We have seen success right in our own backyards,” she added. Cryptos come with multiple challenges and these must be addressed, experts said. Authorities should move in the direction of debate, assessment and deliberation over such assets.

RBI has always been an active critic of crypto assets and vocal advocate to put a blanket ban on the private crypto assets. Proliferation of such currencies will undermine the rupee, they said.

Repulsing from RBI’s opinion, market experts said that banning cryptocurrencies is not the right way forward, rather the easiest way out for now.

In a country like India, there are many conflicts of interest, said Anndy Lian, Chairman, BigONE Exchange. “The central bank should find a way to embrace it and build a different and hopefully better future with this form of currency,” he added.

Change is never accepted easily, said Beri. “A decade ago, no one gave online payments much of a chance and today the common man uses it. A nascent technology comes with inherent challenges.”

In the union budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama announced that the gains arising from the transactions in the private crypto assets will be taxed at a flat rate of 30 per cent, with no exemption or deduction.

The loss arising from the sale of any virtual assets cannot be set off against any other income. TDS at the rate of 1 per cent would be levied on payments made on transfer of digital assets.

The move was welcomed by the crypto players, particularly the exchanges. Reading between the lines, they expected a positive regulatory framework to the new age asset class. However, after RBI comments, the dreams appear to be shattered.

The crypto companies may also hold back on their expansion plans just because there are no clear instructions from the government, said the crypto experts.

Jay Hao, CEO of OKX said that it’s important for the regulators of a country to be on the same page to form the crypto policy framework. He believes that India needs clear guidelines for the continued growth of the crypto ecosystem.

“Multiple statements from officials may create confusion in the minds of investors which could be harmful for the users,” Hao added.

“The lack of clarity on regulations also discourages foreign institutional investors from investing in the sector.”

 

Original Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/cryptocurrency/rbi-should-hold-debates-discussions-before-any-crypto-decision-experts/articleshow/89616737.cms

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

What Should Investors Do Now That The Price of Bitcoin Has Dipped

What Should Investors Do Now That The Price of Bitcoin Has Dipped

Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, recently dropped to $42,000 in an unexpected drop that also impacted major altcoins and cryptocurrency investors.

 

Bitcoin recently reached an all-time high of $69,000, and enthusiasts were already calling for the next leg up for bitcoin to reach new heights, which is why this dip surprised many investors. The sharp drop in May, when cryptocurrencies lost 47% of their value in a week, was prompted by a clampdown on crypto-trading in China and a tweet by Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, saying that the electric-vehicle maker would stop accepting payments in bitcoin.

 

BigONE has decided to investigate the reasons for the latest Bitcoin price crash, to understand its longer-term prospects, as well as scope out alternative crypto investment opportunities to enable you to update your trading strategy for 2022.

 

Cryptocurrency analysts have cited several reasons as the cause of this 20% fall in Bitcoin’s value,  including FUD created by Gary Gensler, the SEC chairman, regarding cryptocurrency regulation in the US, the news of a new variant of the coronavirus called Omicron, unease in the markets after the latest US monthly jobs report sent mixed signals about the country’s economic recovery, which

 

“may have indicated to investors that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates sooner than planned, lowering the returns on riskier assets,”

 

according to the Financial Times (FT). In addition, President Joe Biden signing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that contains tax ramifications for cryptocurrency investors in the US may have also played a part. All of these factors could have played a role in this cryptocurrency market decline, but one key factor has gone unnoticed, and it has to do with the influence of traditional financial markets.

 

The cryptocurrency market, which is typically regarded as an independent market from traditional financial assets, fell in value only hours after a storm in traditional financial assets. Wall Street, the epicenter of the world’s financial markets, experienced a volatile weekly close on Friday, December 3 in response to news of the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus.

 

Bitcoin’s drop has been traced back to these Wall Street events, which is somewhat surprising given that cryptocurrencies are classified differently than traditional assets. Speaking to the FT, David Fauchier, portfolio manager at Nickel Digital, linked the investors who sold off equities to many of the same people who sold off Bitcoin, causing the price drop so sharply, particularly because crypto is tradeable over weekends, unlike traditional stocks.

 

The future outlook for Bitcoin investors

Despite this drop, Bitcoin has proven to be highly resilient since its inception, always rising to new highs after each setback. The most recent occurred after Bitcoin reached its previous all-time high of $64,000 around April and fell by nearly 50% in May before recovering and reaching a new all-time high of $69,500 for the first time on November 10.

 

Bitcoin is currently trading at $49k, having recovered somewhat from its lows of $42k. According to Humphrey Yang, the personal finance expert behind Humphrey Talks, big price dips are nothing to be concerned about, instead, he avoids checking his investments during volatile market dips. “I’ve been through the 2017 cycle, too,” Yang said in a Time article, referring to the 2017 ‘crypto crash’, in which many major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, lost significant value. “I’m aware that these things are extremely volatile and that they can fall by as much as 80% in a single day.”

 

It’s also worth noting that in many cryptocurrencies a few big investors hold significant sway. For example, in the case of meme coin Shiba Inu, ten wallet addresses hold more than 60% of the total available supply of Shiba Inu. In other words, at least ten people have these wallet addresses, or all of them are held by a few people.

 

Even the Shiba Inu audit report, available on its website, shows that more than half of its total available supply is stored in four wallet addresses. Therefore, if any of these wallet addresses decides to sell Shiba Inu coins, the market will be seriously affected. While in the case of Bitcoin in 2020, less than 20% of the supply was actually traded with the majority of BTC held long-term.

 

As a result, trades can have a disproportionate impact on the market.

 

Based on its performance over the last decade, BigONE believes Bitcoin has the potential to recover from this latest pullback. However, investing in cryptocurrency involves risks, and BigONE thinks everyone should conduct their research before investing in any other cryptocurrency.

 

According to CoinMarketCap data from early November, there are currently over 13,500 cryptocurrencies in circulation. However, many of these cryptocurrencies are disappearing from the market daily for a variety of reasons. Investing in cryptocurrency can yield extraordinary returns, but it also carries risks, as do all investments.

 

Therefore, BigONE advises you to only invest in funds that you can afford to lose and to make sure that your crypto assets are part of your overall investment portfolio. You should also spend as much time researching and learning about the cryptocurrency you intend to invest in before making any investment decisions.

 

Other crypto investment opportunities

BigONE believes investors should take inspiration from the drop in the price of Bitcoin and investigate coins with utility in the growing metaverse market. The metaverse concept is becoming increasingly popular, with tech behemoth Facebook (now Meta) recently rebranding to become a metaverse company.

 

With the development of the metaverse, we can already see people using cryptocurrency to buy land and commodities in various existing virtual worlds, proving the viability of the “cryptocurrency-metaverse” combination. In 2021, Axie Infinity is one of the best performing cryptocurrencies with its highly engaged play-to-earn user base. So far, it has generated an incredible gain of more than 24,000%, and this play-to-earn game has inspired a slew of similar games.

 

Players can breed and raise cute and unique Axies, then sell them on the market for large profits. Other metaverse tokens worth a closer look include Decentraland’s MANA tokens which can be used to buy and develop the land.

 

As reported in Cointelegraph on December 6: “Although Decentraland ranked in second place for the total volume traded, the top 10 most expensive metaverse NFT sales during the past week, ranging from 225,000 MANA ($758,250) to 50,000 MANA ($220,000), were all on the Ethereum-based virtual world. Decentraland traded $6.6 million in volume for 399 assets over the past week.”

 

Other potential tokens worth investigating include layer-one solutions such as Solana and Fantom and layer-two solution tokens such as Matic, which can be purchased on the BigONE exchange.

 

Certainly, Solana has been a firm favorite with crypto investors, having risen in value by more than 15,000% on a year-to-date basis. A key reason for this, apart from its fast transaction rate and cheaper fees than Ethereum, is its ability to grow the NFT marketplace. “As we just pointed out, Solana’s low-fee, the high-speed network has proven to be beneficial for NFT investors looking to nab a popular piece of digital artwork,” confirmed a recent report in The Motley Fool.

 

Committed investors should consider these altcoins that have the potential to become blue chips in the longer term, and this dip is an excellent time to both investigate and acquire these tokens.

 

#AnndyLian says: “Volatility is built into the way crypto markets operate, which means your crypto position may be great today, but look terrible tomorrow. You should approach investing with this in mind, and sell if you need to and buy again when the time is right for you and your level of risk. Don’t get too stuck on one particular project or token, there are new opportunities opening up with the growth of the metaverse.”

 

 

Original Source: https://hackernoon.com/what-should-investors-do-now-that-the-price-of-bitcoin-has-dipped

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j

India Should Embrace Decentralization for the Benefit of All Its Citizens

India Should Embrace Decentralization for the Benefit of All Its Citizens

The government of India’s plans to ban cryptocurrency are the actions of a reforming administration which is struggling to understand the forces of cryptocurrency decentralization and decentralized finance (DeFi). The proposed ban by the Indian government against private cryptocurrency also needs to be put in context of the real-world politics and economic concerns driving the legislative agenda.

Back in 2016 the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, declared that 1,000- and 500-rupee notes would no longer be valid. This meant that around 86% of currency in circulation was no longer legal tender. And in a similar fashion to today’s proposed crypto move, its set to target tax evasion, with data from 2013 showing only 1% of India’s then 1.28 billion inhabitants paid any tax. Then in 2018 the Reserve Bank of India sent shock waves through the crypto community when it announced that financial institutions were to stop doing business with retail and business crypto users. While in 2020 the Supreme Court overturned this order as in breach of the constitution’s safeguard to free trade, it’s clear the Indian Government is still very much concerned about the welfare of its citizens, particularly young people, by take control of cryptocurrencies.

The challenge is that at a time when India is seeking to boost its attractiveness for business innovation and entrepreneurship that one of the most dynamic sectors is the rapidly growing DeFi sector. Compared to neighboring economies such as Pakistan and Vietnam, DeFi in India is not only much bigger but also a more mature sector. With India’s crypto adoption ranking second in the world in the recent 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index from Chainalysis, the report confirmed that large institutional-sized transfers above $10 million worth of cryptocurrency represent 42% of transactions sent from India-based addresses, versus 28% for Pakistan and 29% for Vietnam, with the highest rate of crypto adoption in the world. The argument from the crypto industry is that what is needed is better regulation and education to support the estimated 15-20 million crypto investors in India, who are benefiting from using cryptocurrency to send and receive money around the world, this includes young people earning money from playing blockchain-based games such as Axie Infinity.

The continued attractiveness of cryptocurrency, despite policy shifts in the last few years, derives in part from the reality of the current equity market for Indian investors. Compared to the ease of holding crypto, an equity investment is still much more bureaucratic, with a process that can reportedly take up to four days to process from start to finish. Indeed, it’s estimated that there are as many as four times more crypto investors in India compared to equity investors, suggesting that the government’s agenda would benefit from including equity market reform.

A third challenge for the Indian Government tackling cryptocurrency is the fact that an increasing numbers of IT professionals and freelancers from the fintech through to IT sector now get paid in crypto. Indeed, these crypto savvy professionals have a good selection of decentralized exchanges for their transactions, thanks to the growth of the DeFi sector. While it’s understandable that the Government wishes to roll out their own central bank digital currency (CBDC) to facilitate payments, it needs to therefore consider the needs of India’s growing crypto and blockchain business community.

With the crypto industry in India currently seeing over 100% growth month-on-month growth, these are some of the complex challenges facing the government more so than is suggested by simplistic headline on India banning crypto. As we’ve seen recently with the all too predictable ban on cryptocurrency in China, leading to a mass exodus of the highly profitable crypto mining industry to the US, Russia and Kazakhstan, there are important economic issues to consider for India in the context of a global economy, in addition longstanding concerns about tax evasion and cryptocurrency volatility.

Despite the gradual softening of the Indian government’s attitude to crypto currency since the 2018 ban the Indian Government is reminiscent of Chinese state policy, seeing the advantages of a central bank currency, and the benefits of blockchain based innovation, but without wider decentralization. So, the question remains to what degree will the Indian Government be able to seize the opportunities provided by decentralized technologies and DeFi, faced with conflicting pressures from a global economy and crypto entrepreneurs on the one hand, and a central bank looking to take control over an unregulated cash economy on the other?

For further confirmation of the power of decentralized crypto sector in a global economy still struggling to recover from COVID-19, you need look no further than the US which recently passed the much-awaited $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law. In crypto circles the hype around the bill’s positive features was overshadowed by its poorly worded and ambiguous sections on tax reporting provisions that apply to digital assets. Despite intense lobbying before the bill was passed, the imperatives of the US Treasury Department won the day. Now it’s left to new amendments to the law to sort out the mess. In India where policy is guided by the best of intentions to help solve the issue of a ‘volatile’ cryptocurrency market, there are also risks in undermining a successful crypto sector that is estimated to directly and indirectly employ approximately 50,000 people.

The Indian Government is at a crossroads in terms of the development of decentralized finance and the blockchain sector. It can learn from the impact of the ban in China, and the poorly worded legislation in the US, for a country competing in a global economy. There are more pragmatic approaches to crypto in smaller territories and countries such as Singapore and Switzerland worth considering. Singapore is trying to build its own crypto ecosystem by embracing crypto exchanges and startups, and I think that is a model that India could adapt to fit its specific policy needs. After all, even for Singapore it’s still a tricky balancing act to achieve, to embrace crypto, and regulate the crypto sector to protect investors and the public at large, to be a leading hub for cryptocurrencies in Southeast Asia and globally.

It remains to be seen whether the Indian Government’s approach will work in the long run, seeking to ban cryptocurrency for payments (hence the use of the term “private cryptocurrency” in the proposed legislation), while at the same time allowing for digital assets to be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. This cryptocurrency ban is at odds with the decentralized economy where crypto payments and assets go hand in hand. Ripple in the US recently brought out its vision of public and private sector working together, in a regulatory framework that is fit for purpose. In India the crypto sector also needs to recognize the need for regulation, to unlock the potential of both crypto and blockchain to power the economy, while also protecting the estimated 15 to 20 million retailer investors, and the market as a whole.

There is certainly room for optimism regarding the Indian Government’s plans for crypto regulation, drawing on the lessons from the US and China, and the successes of crypto ecosystems in Singapore and Switzerland. But this learning curve over the last year, set against the desire for tax reform in the last five years, needs to start sooner rather than later. By the nature of a decentralized economy its not one where assets and crypto currency can be easily divided. Bitcoin is largely seen as a store of value, a digital asset to rival gold. But at the same time in El Salvador its now legal tender for payments from small to large businesses, for both citizens and government. India needs to clamp down on tax evasion, but it also needs to prioritize growing an economy for all its citizens.

It’s also true that with about 190 million unbanked adults, India is second only to China for the number of people without bank accounts or a stake in the formal financial sector, according to the World Bank. Government initiatives have worked best when in collaboration with the private sector have taken on a more decentralized approach, providing services without the need for banking and service fees. In other words, there’s already a model for adoption of decentralized crypto solutions for the unbanked. With the political motivation to see cryptocurrencies as tools to help India compete in the post-pandemic global economy, it could also help lift millions of its citizens out of poverty. Let’s hope therefore that these insights help guide the final form of the new regulation, and decentralization plays its part in the heart of the world’s largest democracy. #anndyliansays

 

Original Source: https://www.securities.io/india-should-embrace-decentralization-for-the-benefit-of-all-its-citizens/

Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.

Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.

www.anndy.com
j j j