Tldr: No.
Long answer below.
When I was typing the previous post about on February 2021 update, I touched upon crypto. I felt it’s prudent that we get into more details.
I’m sure you’re aware that the Indian government is thinking of banning any private crypto currency. I’d translate it as all coins currently not controlled by the Indian government. The government wants to launch its own crypto currency or digital rupee. But that’s a bad idea. By banning private crypto currencies, the government is ensuring that it doesn’t let India have a lead in the blockchain market. We have some great startups including exchanges such as WazirX, Coindcx. A blanket ban like this would throttle development.
There are people out there who think that BTC particularly will become the digital gold just as Gold was the reserve currencies for many countries ages ago. And I do believe that this is going to happen. And the change would be pretty quick as well. By not allowing Indian citizens to participate in building wealth through digital currencies, the Indian government is doing an injustice on its citizens. I really do hope that sanity prevails.
The natural question many currently have is whether to sell their portfolio. What if government bans BTC and you cannot liquidate the portfolio anymore? If you ask me, the decision should completely be on your risk appetite. All of my crypto investments were under the assumption that it’s a speculative currency. Hence, I’ve only stashed the amount that I can afford to lose. For now, I’m not going to liquidate my portfolio anticipating a ban. Even if the Government bans, I’ll survive and ride through not having to liquidate for more than 30 years. That’s a lot of time. Things can change in decades. This might not work for everyone and hence everyone should evaluate as their own appetite.
Here’s a screenshot of my partial portfolio on Blockfi as of today. This only includes BTC on Blockfi and doesn’t include BTC on cold storage. I also have ETH and XRP lying around. They are the coins that I don’t even bother checking.
I anticipate that bitcoin specifically will become the reserve currency going forward. With Grayscale, MicroStrategy and as recently as Tesla reserving BTC, it’s going to be off to Mars.
Please do not take this as investment advice. Do your own research before you put your hard earned money in a ‘speculative’ currency.