As India grapples with policy inertia in the crypto sector, industry leaders at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2025 in Mumbai urged the government to swiftly adopt clear regulatory frameworks or risk losing innovation and talent to foreign shores.
Speaking at a panel titled “India’s Crypto Crossroads: Time for a Policy Rethink?”, experts called for an INR-backed stablecoin and immediate legislative clarity for digital assets.
CoinDCX Co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta, Binance Head of APAC S. B. Seker, former RBI Executive Director G. Padmanabhan, and Bharat Web3 Association Chairperson Dilip Chenoy agreed that India can no longer afford the cost of regulatory ambiguity in the sector.
Gupta highlighted the operational struggles facing Indian exchanges due to unclear regulations. “Running an exchange in India has been a nightmare because of uncertainty,” he said, adding that “90 % of my friends, who are talented IIT graduates, have moved abroad. If we are too late, it will be very difficult to bring that talent back.”
Echoing similar concerns, Chenoy stressed that regulatory delays are undermining India’s competitiveness and draining innovation.
“By delaying regulation, we are putting Indian companies at a disadvantage and encouraging them to move overseas,” he noted. “A recent study showed that 27 % of the biggest Indian crypto product creators have already relocated abroad.”
Padmanabhan emphasized that the financial system is inevitably moving toward digitalisation and tokenisation. “The future of finance is digital. The future of finance is tokenisation,” he told the audience, urging policymakers to act decisively. He also warned that India must protect its monetary sovereignty in the face of dollar-based stablecoin dominance.
A recurring demand from the panel was for the introduction of an INR-pegged stablecoin to lower remittance costs, strengthen the rupee’s international role, and prevent over-reliance on the U.S. dollar in the digital economy. Gupta cautioned that with most stablecoins pegged to the dollar, India risks losing long-term monetary influence without its own version.
The urgency, speakers said, is underscored by global trends; nearly 18 G20 nations already have crypto or digital-asset regulations in place, and many are exploring central bank digital currencies.
Without timely action, India could lose not only its homegrown talent and startups but also its position in the evolving global digital-finance ecosystem. The onus, they warned, now lies squarely with policymakers to ensure India does not miss the next financial revolution.