RBI in its first monetary policy review of the fiscal year 2018-19 on Thursday almost banned cryptocurrencies without categorically specifying it. This led to a sharp fall in the price of crypto tokens including bitcoins on Indian exchanges.

The government hinted of its intentions to roll out its own virtual currency and asked all regulated financial entities to cut-off ties with private players with stake in such currencies.

Just before the RBI announcement, bitcoin in international market was trading at $6,950 while on India's most popular Zebpay exchange it was trading at 8% premium at Rs. 5,00,000 (1 dollar=Rs 65). Nonetheless, at 11:30pm IST, international markets quoted bitcoin at $6,701 or Rs. 4,35,565 but on Zebpay it lost almost 27% in value and traded at Rs. 340,400.

As per the Zebpay website, bitcoin crypto recovered early losses and was trading higher at Rs. 3,53,200 at 12:33 pm on Friday.

Other cryptos including the likes of ethereum, litecoin, ripple etc. also witnessed similar fall in tandem with bitcoin token.

RBI has given a time of three months to regulated institutions to cut-off ties from all such crypto dealings.

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