India reins in cryptocurrency, top banks suspend accounts of Bitcoin exchanges

While governments across world are not sure what to do with Bitcoin, the Indian government has swiftly acted to rein in Bitcoin and other such currencies. The income tax department has sent tax notices to tens of thousands of people dealing in cryptocurrency. The notices were sent after a survey assessed the penetration and patterns of virtual currency trade. The tax department is not going to wait until a final decision is taken on the legality of cryptocurrencies.

Last month, the Income Tax (IT) department planned to send notices to 4 to 5 lakh high networth individuals (HNI) across the country who were trading on the exchanges of this unregulated virtual currency, the PTI reported.

The move came after the IT department conducted survey operations at major bitcoin exchanges across the country on suspicion of alleged tax evasion.

Top banks of the country have suspended some accounts of major Bitcoin exchanges in India on suspicion of dubious transactions.

Banks including leading ones such as State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank are said to have suspended some accounts of top ten such cryptocurrency exchanges/platforms in the country such as Zebpay, Unocoin, CoinSecure, BtcxIndia, among others.