India is working with G20 members to regulate cryptocurrencies: Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: G20 members are working together under India's Presidency to bring a collective standard operating procedure (SOP) for crypto mining, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

She was answering a question from DMK MP T Sumathy in Lok Sabha.

The finance minister said cryptocurrencies are largely unregulated in India at the moment. "Whether it is mining or the asset or whether it is the transaction, we recognise that it is completely driven by technology and a standalone country's effort to control and regulate is not going to be effective," reported ANI.

When asked how the government is planning to regulate crypto mining in India, Sitharamn said India would be an alternate destination if regulation is certain and infra is provided because China is tracking down crypto miners.

She added that India is " raising this issue in the G20 and having a detailed discussion over the issue so that a standard operating procedure emerges." She further said that there is a coherent, comprehensive, and all-country-working-together kind of approach in bringing some regulations, whether it is mining or transacting and all these would have been looked into with comprehension.

During a joint conference of the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India on Saturday, the union minister said that crypto is a 99% technology and it is under discussion with G20 nations.

She also told the media that one country alone cannot do anything if regulations are in place. "We are talking to all countries about whether we will be able to make any standard operating procedure. So that if everyone follows that path and we create a regulatory framework, will we be able to remain effective?"