India has emerged as a world leader in this ecosystem. It is consistently arranged on the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index and is the home of one of the world’s largest Web3 developer communities, as emphasized in the 2024 report of the electric capital developer.
This persistent momentum offers a timely and strategic opportunity for India to deal with a technology that quickly goes from margins to the mainstream of the digital economy.
Crypto Tracker
During his G20 presidency in 2023, India played a crucial role in building global consensus on the need for a coordinated regulatory framework for VDAs – an urgent requirement at the time. Since then, most G20 jurisdictions have made considerable progress. The monumental mica -framework of the European Union came into force in December 2024 and formed a worldwide precedent. In the US, the momentum of the regulations was picked up, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a dedicated crypto task force and a presidential implementation order on the Bitcoin Reserve and the American digital assets stock that pushes the agenda to concrete legislative action.
Recently, on June 17, the US Senate approved the guidance and established the national innovation for the US Stablecoins (Genius) Act. These developments emphasize the crucial role that legislators play in shaping rising technical policy and show how both legislative and executive branches should work together to maintain the regulation momentum. In India, however, a formal discourse remains about regulating VDAs. The current framework is limited to AML/CFT supervision, a steep tax regime and a proposal to collect and exchange data about VDA transactions via the Carf (Crypto-ASCHET Reporting Framework). One of the striking gaps in India’s governance architecture is the limited involvement of the parliament of emerging technologies, in particular VDAS and Blockchain Innovations. It is remarkable that between 2021 and 2025 of the 52,116 questions asked in the Lok Sabha, only 0.063% was related to cryptoassets, cryptocurrency or VDAs.
In the Rajya Sabha this figure is 0.08% of the 32,398 questions from 2021–2024. As far as debates are concerned, the 17th Lok Sabha saw only three discussions – two by speeches of zero hour and one special mention. The current 18th session has not seen anything so far. In 2021, the parliament indicated that the intention to develop a legislative framework on cryptoassets, but that effort did not go further.
Interestingly, India has announced plans to release a discussion document (DP) on VDAS in July 2024. The DP is a crucial first step; However, since the announcement has passed for almost a year and the newspaper is still expected. The timely release, in combination with the involvement of a proactive and informed parliament, will be the key to promoting this vision.
With only a handful of MPs who are currently equipped to navigate through the nuances of digital innovation, there is an urgent need to build up institutional capacity for informed legislative involvement.
The Sabha -speaker Lokhha recently underlined the urgency of these issues, and emphasized the importance of suitable regulatory systems, protection of data privacy and fair technological access that is discussed through national parliaments.
The complexity of VDAs – voltage tax, financial markets, security, privacy and global compliance – requires robust and sustainable parliamentary dialogue. Maintaining the momentum will have to improve the improvement of the MP consciousness through briefing sessions, commission assessments and engagement of cross-party.
India’s ambitious ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision for 2047 depends on inclusive growth and leadership in not only digital public infrastructure, but also sunrise sectors such as AI, digital technology and – critical – fintech.
As VDAs become an integral part of this landscape, the coming discussion document offers a timely opportunity to map a clear, future -oriented regulation path. But to change this opportunity into action, requires more than just policy intention; It requires a proactive, informed and involved parliament.
A strong legislative foundation-on the basis of debate and cooperation between parties and cooperation are essential for India to not only keep pace with global developments, but also leads to the design of the future of digital finances and technology management.
(R Venkatesh is head of public policy on Coinswitch, Saurya Mishra, Lamp Fellow, PRS Legislative Research and Monya is a senior public policy analyst at Coinswitch)
(Disclaimer: recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions of the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of economic times)
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