--- title: India’s Top Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade description: India’s Supreme Court struck down a central bank directive that effectively outlawed virtual currencies in Asia’s third-largest economy canonical: https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-04T07:06:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T08:23:04.377Z article:section: World og:title: India’s Top Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade og:description: The ruling is a boost for virtual currency investors in India, where a skeptical government is mulling stringent regulations og:url: https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66d0335f71724199/698a0b17db29872f252650a2/India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: India’s Top Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade twitter:description: The ruling is a boost for virtual currency investors in India, where a skeptical government is mulling stringent regulations twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66d0335f71724199/698a0b17db29872f252650a2/India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # India’s Supreme Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade by [Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg Mar 4, 2020 7:06 AM CUT  USB cables are seen inside the DMM Mining Farm in Kanazawa, Japan on March 20, 2018. USB cables are seen inside the DMM Mining Farm in Kanazawa, Japan on March 20, 2018.Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg Mar 4, 2020 7:06 AM CUT India’s Supreme Court struck down a central bank directive that effectively outlawed virtual currencies in Asia’s third-largest economy. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman agreed with petitions by cryptocurrency exchanges, start ups and industry bodies that had challenged the Reserve Bank of India’s April 2018 decision to ban banks from offering any services to support digital currencies. The ruling is a boost for virtual currency investors and businesses in India, where a [skeptical](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-08/facebook-s-libra-currency-faces-skeptical-government-in-india "undefined") federal government is mulling stringent regulations. The Supreme Court is separately hearing another case, in which it will decide on regulations for digital currencies, and Wednesday’s judgment weakens the case for strict norms. Meanwhile, the Indian central bank has been [exploring](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-05/india-studying-digital-currency-extends-crackdown-on-crypto "undefined") the creation of a sovereign-backed digital currency even as it escalated its crackdown on private instruments like bitcoin, citing the potential for money laundering and other illegal activities. The RBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Opponents of the curbs argued that the central bank wasn’t empowered to issue the ban and its directive hadn’t adequately studied the matter. Kunal Barchha, co-founder of CoinRecoil.com, said his cryptocurrency exchange will now approach a couple of potential investors who had initially been lined up for funding but backed off after the RBI’s ban. “Now crypto traders, investors, miners, can proudly speak up about what they do for a living. Now they won’t be judged as criminals,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/"},"headline":"India’s Supreme Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade","datePublished":"2020-03-04T07:06:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:23:04.377Z","description":"The ruling is a boost for virtual currency investors in India, where a skeptical government is mulling stringent regulations","url":"https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/","keywords":["India","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66d0335f71724199/698a0b17db29872f252650a2/India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Upmanyu Trivedi / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66d0335f71724199/698a0b17db29872f252650a2/India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"India_cryptocurrency_supreme_court.jpg","caption":"Inside The DMM Mining Farm As Japan Unveils Guidelines For Allowing Initial Coin Offerings","creditText":"Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/india/","name":"India"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5795334/cryptocurrency-india-central-bank-supreme-court/","name":"India’s Supreme Court Strikes Down Curbs on Cryptocurrency Trade"}}]}] ```