India aims to develop tech driven regulatory framework for crypto during G20 presidency: Nirmala Sitharaman

moneycontrol.com:

India is aiming at developing standard operating procedures for cryptocurrency during its G20 presidency next year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, underlining that all countries want the technology to survive but not be misutilised.

That (crypto) will also be part of India’s thing (agenda during G-20 presidency), Sitharaman told a group of Indian reporters on Saturday before concluding her trip to Washington DC to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

India will assume the Presidency of the G20 for one year from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. Under its Presidency, India is expected to host over 200 G20 meetings across the country, beginning December 2022.

Sitharaman has been making a strong case for global regulation of cryptocurrencies to tackle the risks on money laundering and terror funding. Noting that institutions, which are associated with the G-20 or the World Bank or any such organisation, are doing their own assessment and studies of matters related to cryptocurrencies or crypto assets, the minister said, "We would definitely want to collate all this and do a bit of study and then bring it on to the table of the G-20 so that members can discuss it and hopefully arrive at a framework or SOP, so that globally, countries can have a technology driven regulatory framework.”

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union. It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.

Sitharaman underlined that no one single country can effectively handle or regulate crypto in any form. But implicit in this is that we