How The New Government Regulations Will Affect NFT In India

If you’ve been following trading news over the last month, the chances are that you’re familiar with the term NFT which also spells Non-fungible tokens. From Twitter’s Jack Dorsey to Elon Musk trading through NFT – it seems safe to say that non-fungible tokens are set to shape modern digital trading.

Despite any legal framework, NFT trading volume will hit $10.7 billion by 2022 in India. However, NFT India might skip out on this revolution due to its proposed anti-crypto bills. With the government in talks to pass crypto bills, the expert’s lobby has been divided into two parts – leading to the most pressing pinpoint – whether or not NFT will be legal in India.

In this post, we will briefly discuss NFT India, the bright and faded sides of its legalisation, and how the emancipated crypto bills will affect it.

What is NFT?

One of the disadvantages of digital content is that, maybe due to reproducibility, it is nearly impossible to identify the origin of a piece of online content. This reproduction also results in the devaluation of the digital assets’ originality. Additionally, failure to identify the first owner, sometimes, might complicate the maintenance of purchase and ownership records. With features like fungibility, value storage, and originality, NFT seems to resolve these issues.

In layman’s terms, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are a mode of transaction in the million-dollar online trading industry that seems to be growing at a rapid pace. Non-fungible tokens are unique and act as proof of ownership of a digital asset or content.

NFT India has been widely used for trading digital assets ranging from digital art, music to books and more. The sole purpose is to ensure the originality of digital assets and make them transparent. It also aids in maintaining transactions related to online content.

NFT India has been a part of online trading for a few years but was introduced to the mainstream in recent months when secret billionaires like Vignesh Sundaresan (also known as MetaKovan) made headlines for the biggest NFT deals in India.

Future of NFT India

The cryptocurrency market in India has grown exponentially over the last few years. According to a study, close to 7.30 per cent of India’s population owns cryptocurrency, and the Indian crypto market is expected to reach $241 million by 2030. But, crypto doesn’t grow alone. The dramatic growth of cryptocurrency in India had resulted in a boom for NFT India.

India has three prominent NFT marketplaces, namely, WazirX, Vibranium, and Byteblock. These platforms cater to over 17000 creators and collectors as per the data. NFT India is growing steadily with many celebrities, including Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sunny Leone, and many others. They have launched or are planning to launch their own NFTs.

Bachchan recently released NFT and personal collection on beyondlife.com. His collectables include autographed vintage posters, his father’s famous poems and other items associated with his family and stardom.

Khan is also said to launch his NFT in December on BollyCoin. Though, he has successfully closed his first sale of around 20 million tokens worth $2 million. Actor-cum-politician Kamal Hasan, Sunny Leone, and other big names push the NFT India forward.

However, experts still believe that the NFT India market is too young to transform the digital content economy. Vishaka Singh, vice-president of WazirX NFT India, says, “The current set of NFT India owners is early-stage adopters, tech-savvy startups, or independent creators, who are in for profit only. Since NFTs were unavailable for the users in the pandemic, they are ruling the internet right now.”

As of now, the focus is on introducing new creators and as many use cases as possible. However, the NFT India landscape can expand to all possessions, including real estate and gold.

What’s the Government’s Take on NFT India?

NFTs have been appropriately trading in India though, the prime concern for most creators and collectors is a legal and regulatory framework that is unavailable now. As the Cryptocurrency bills are still in talks, nothing much is known about the bill’s contents. But, the anticipation has been making a community nervous in the crypto-verse – the expanding world of investors, players, dealers, creators, collectors, and developers.

Let’s talk about whether or not the NFT India will survive the Crypto bills. The bills have to, above all, define a standard qualification for valid crypto. As it will set a benchmark, it will be a good beginning. Depending on how the crypto bills frame NFTs in terms of taxations and regulations, NFT India might lose or win the crypto-verse.

Will Cryptocurrency Regulations Affect NFT India? Will NFT India Ban?

Of course, not. Crypto is the future in the digitally evolving marketplace. Though there are a lot of innovations yet to happen in the industry, “Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulations of Official Digital Currency Bill” brings a level of clarity.

Section 3 (3) seems to support the NFT India; laying down the use of non-fungible tokens would be permissible in the case of “building a network for delivery of any form of transaction” without involving Cryptocurrencies. Apparently, any future bill will specify the legalisation of the crypto assets such as NFTs, and it will serve the digital creators due to its nature.

Secondly, both the government and the RBI are not clear on the classification of cryptocurrencies. However, some experts believe that since Crypto and NFTs belong to the same family of Blockchain, these bills will affect both.

Final Words: Should NFT India Be Banned?

Undoubtedly, the anticipated Crypto bills are fearing a community in the crypto world; they will be a gamechanger for the country. Though none will say NFTs are perfect, they will surely trigger large-scale innovation and integration of cryptos into multiple applications where digital assets are traded. NFT India currently is an immense speculation, especially for the wealthy community who have been riding through the Crypto waves. However, the general people must be aware of the dangers involved in NFT India trading.