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On 6th April 2018, an RBI circular prohibited all entities regulated by the RBI from dealing in Virtual Currencies (“VCs”) or providing services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs. Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accountsRead more

The nearly two-year long challenge by Indian cryptocurrency users, traders and exchanges, against the April 6, 2018 RBI circular[1], which cut off such users’ access to the formal economy has come to a close. On Tuesday, 28 January 2020 arguments in the writ petition challenging the circular before the Supreme Court were concluded and theRead more

This is the first in a series of blog posts on blockchain governance. This blog explains what blockchain governance is and lays the groundwork for deeper study. Let’s begin with an example to understand the need for governance structures for blockchain solutions. Suppose an electricity transmission company supplies electricity to your house in New Delhi,Read more

Vantage Point This is a compilation of selected posts on our LinkedIn page from October and November 2019. Alco-tech In a major setback for the alco-tech industry, the Karnataka High Court recently delivered a judgment deeming the online sale and delivery of alcohol illegal. A significant development for not just the liquor industry, it mayRead more

Ikigai Law’s Tanya Sadana explains the policies issues around Cryptocurrencies in India at MediaNama’s #NAMA Bootcamp on Cryptocurrencies held in New Delhi. Ikigai Law represents leading crypto-exchanges in the Supreme Court challenging the RBI directive banning banking access to these exchanges.  

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 An initial exchange offering(“IEO”) is a crowdfunding mechanism which, for the large part is similar to an initial coin offering (“ICO”) but for certain reasons is considered an improvement over it. Prime amongst these is that an exchange serves as a trusted intermediary between the token sellers[1] and the buyers. This meansRead more

What is the document? The Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (“Staff”) of the Securities and Exchanges Commission (“SEC”) recently released a Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets (“Framework” or “Document”)[1]. These are essentially guidelines to assess whether an investment into a digital asset (which, per the document includes any asset whichRead more

What was promised? In November 2018, The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (“SEC”) promised to come out with a ‘plain English’ guidance for developers who wished to undertake their own token offerings[1] (‘token’ is used to indicate a cryptocurrency, crypto-asset or a digital asset; these terms are used interchangeably here, strictly for the purposes ofRead more

News has it that Facebook is foraying into online remittances and will introduce a tethered  digital asset named “Libra” to fuel this system. Libra will be linked with the INR (i.e. the Indian National Rupee) and each Libra will always convert to 1 INR. How will this play with the April 2018 RBI circular that imposed a deRead more

This report seeks to identify trends in funds raised by and the market capitalization of the most successful blockchain projects in various sectors, such as smart contracts, finance, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and specialized blockchain. The report is available here.