India's government is planning to introduce a new law that will ban the use of cryptocurrencies, and create a state-owned digital currency of their own.

The country also plans to introduce a "facilitative framework" where India's Reserve Bank (RBI) will be able to issue digital currencies to the public for transactional use.

This is not the first time lawmakers have taken this stance on cryptocurrencies. 

In 2018, a government panel recommended banning all private cryptocurrencies and even proposed fines and a jail term of up to 10 years for anyone caught dealing with cryptocurrencies.

"The government does not recognize cryptocurrency as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system", mentioned India’s then-finance minister, Arun Jaitley.

India isn't the only country that is exploring a digital currency of their own.

Many countries — including the United States, China, Japan, Canada, Venezuela, Estonia, Sweden and Uruguay — have explored developing state-owned digital currencies of their own too.

So far, China leads the race in this areas, having introduced Digital Yuan for public use back in 2020.