India is expected to release the first draft of its cryptocurrency discussion paper as early as this month, a step that could shape the future of digital assets in the country. The paper will explore use cases and the benefits of evolving technologies like blockchain, stablecoins, and CBDCs.

Ashish Singhal, Co-founder, CoinSwitch, who has been closely engaged with the government over the last two years, calls this upcoming paper a "very good first step" in formalising crypto regulations in India. "We were expecting that by end of June we would get that, but now we're hoping for July.

India can't afford to be left behind as countries across the world move rapidly on this front," he said, speaking about the anticipation around the paper. While Singhal hasn't seen the paper himself, he believes it will not focus on one single dimension of the ecosystem.

"It could talk about different aspects of crypto, stablecoins, NFTs, altcoins, DeFi, trading, and give us room to debate and arrive at the right regulations," he noted. He also sees Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as a transformative evolution of money but believes public and private blockchains must co-exist.