G20 Aims To Build Policy Consensus On Crypto Assets

India’s federal economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth informed on Wednesday that the Group of 20 (G20) countries are trying to reach a policy consensus on crypto assets to form better global regulation.

To build this consensus, the implications of crypto assets for the economy, monetary policy and the banking sector should be studied, Seth said as reported by news agency Reuters.

“The regulation should flow from the policy view taken. In fact, one of the priorities which have been put on the table is to help countries build a consensus for policy approach to the crypto assets,” he said.

India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1 and will hold till the summit to be held in New Delhi in September 2023.

G20 is one of the largest economic forums in the world, with its members accounting for more than 80% of the world’s GDP, 75% of global trade and 60% of the world’s population.

Before India assumed G20 Presidency, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman suggested that the G20 nations should bring non-financial assets such as crypto and immovable properties under the purview of automatic exchange of information among countries.

“While the development of crypto asset reporting framework is underway, I call upon the G20 to examine the feasibility of an automatic exchange of information in respect of other non-financial assets beyond those covered under the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) like immovable properties as well,” she said.

The Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been emphasising on the need for crypto regulation as the market volatility in the crypto space could have spill-over effects on the traditional financial systems that could pose major risks.

The recent collapse of the world’s third-largest crypto exchange FTX which came as a shocker to the ecosystem, has again raised the question of the need for a stringent regulatory framework. Crypto scams such as GainBitcoin, BitConnect and Morris Coin rackets, mismanaged Luna and Terra crash, also brought attention to the need for crypto regulation.