Top private banks including HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have emailed their customers warning them about investment in cryptocurrency concerned by misleading advertisements around it, according to a report in The Economic Times.
This comes as the government is expected to move a cryptocurrency bill in the winter session to regulate the currency.
There has been a volley of advertisements, featuring film and sports stars, promising easy and high returns on investments in cryptocurrencies. "I really worry when you see the ads because they seem to be indicating as if it's like a deposit. One advertisement I saw said that the returns are four times that of fixed-deposit rates,” Axis Bank managing director Amitabh Chaudhry was quoted as saying in the report.
"Our worry is that we can put all sorts of algorithms to trace customers who are putting money in crypto and have conversations with them to be careful, beyond that we can’t do much because it’s depositors’ money," he said.
The RBI has reiterated its stand against cryptocurrencies saying that they pose serious threats to the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country and also doubted the number of investors trading on them as well as their claimed market value.
Currently, there is no regulation or ban on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. Against this backdrop, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week held a meeting with senior officials and indications are that strong regulatory steps could be taken to deal with the issue.
On November 15, a parliamentary panel, chaired by BJP leader Jayant Sinha, also discussed the pros and cons of crypto-finance with various stakeholders.
Originally started with Bitcoin in 2008, there are currently hundreds of cryptocurrencies being traded on private exchanges internationally, including India.
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(With agency inputs)
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