The story of a non-resident Bangladeshi family establishing and running the famed perfume company Al Haramain and its successful subsidiaries
India's government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have previously cautioned the public over crypto-currencies, with New Delhi vowing earlier this year to eliminate the use of digital currency, which it considers illegal.
The RBI said that entities under its regulation may not deal in any virtual currency.
The price of bitcoin plummeted to a low of 350,000 rupees ($5,392) versus its international market price of $6,617, following the RBI announcement, crypto-currency exchange Coinome said.
Bitcoin was trading before the announcement at a 5 per cent premium to the overseas price, said Vishal Gupta, co-founder of the Block Chain and Cryptocurrency Committee, an industry body, noting it is now trading at a significant discount.
"This seems to be a very aggressive move," said technology law expert Namita Viswanath, a principal associate at IndusLaw.
"Instead of the RBI taking a holistic approach and seeing how to curb potential misuse, it seems to be a rather broad-stroke approach of completely prohibiting this altogether."
Late on Friday the RBI issued a more detailed circular stating any regulated entities that already provide virtual currency dealing services will have to cut all ties within three months.
Thursday's announcement raised concerns about the exit options for investors who currently hold crypto-currencies.
The Block Chain and Cryptocurrency Committee's Gupta estimated that at least 4 to 5 million people in India hold some kind of crypto-currency and that 60 percent of them entered the market between October and December, when prices were at a peak.
"Most of these people are already sitting on capital losses," he said. "Now the asset has become dead. You can't transact with it. If you transact with it, your bank accounts are going to be shut."
The story of a non-resident Bangladeshi family establishing and running the famed perfume company Al Haramain and its successful subsidiaries
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