According to Zebpay which has shifted its business out of India, it still has more than 2 million Bitcoin holders in India and have more than 40000 bitcoins in their possession. According to their estimate there are about another 15000 bitcoins in the hands of Indians in other exchanges and may be a further 20,000 in dark pools which Zebpay itself calls as “Black Market”. The other Crypto currencies could add up to a further 50% of the Bitcoin holding.
The total estimated value of the Crypto currencies in the hands of Indians which we term as “Digital Black Money” could therefore be around 100,000 bit coins. At around Rs 8.5 lakhs per Bitcoin, the total value is around Rs 8500 crores. It must be recognized that this is only an estimate of the holding by Indians and the rest of the market capitalization (nearly 300 billion US dollars) is held by non Indians.
According to the industry’s own estimate, only 21% of Bitcoin transactions are deemed ” Lawful” as revealed by the research of MIT and IBM. The research said that billions of dollars are laundered through Crypto currencies every year.
The honourable Supreme Court cannot ignore these facts when it hears the arguments of the industry on legitimization of Cryptos in India.
Naavi
