The Bharat Web3 Association's Self-Regulatory Body
What Has Been Launched
In July 2024, a single cyberattack drained about 230 million dollars from WazirX, then one of India's largest crypto exchanges, and left a vast number of users unable to reach their money for more than a year while a restructuring scheme made its way through the High Court of Singapore. The episode exposed a plain fact about the Indian crypto market, namely that the State taxes these assets and watches them for money laundering, but no law tells an exchange how it must guard customer funds, list a token or answer a complaint. On 28 October 2026, the Bharat Web3 Association (BWA), the principal industry body for crypto exchanges and Web3 firms in India, announced an independent Self-Regulatory Body (SRB) to fill part of that space.
Why It Has Come Now
The immediate trigger is a recommendation from Parliament. In its 36th Report on the proposed Securities Markets Code, 2025, presented to the Lok Sabha on 23 July 2026, the Standing Committee on Finance observed that many virtual digital assets (VDAs) are traded and held as financial assets, yet may not meet the legal meaning of securities or derivatives and would therefore remain outside the new Code. The Finance Ministry, as recorded in the report, informed the Committee that crypto assets are at present covered only for the purposes of taxation, anti-money laundering compliance and reporting, and that bringing them within the Code would need wider consultation among regulators and departments. The Committee accordingly asked the government to examine a dedicated statutory framework and, until such a law is enacted, to consider an interim mechanism run through recognised self-regulatory organisations working under the oversight of a designated regulator. The BWA has presented its body as its own initiative, but its timing places it squarely within the space that this recommendation opened.
How the Body Is Meant to Work
The SRB is chaired by Rohit Kumar Singh, a retired officer of the 1989 batch of the Indian Administrative Service who last served as Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, where he oversaw the digitisation of consumer courts and an AI-enabled grievance system. Dr Praggya Das, formerly Adviser-in-Charge of the Monetary Policy Department of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), joins as a member. The body will encourage member firms to follow the association's guidelines on fair trading and market integrity, cybersecurity, the safeguarding of digital assets and customer data, transparent token listing, consumer protection, grievance redressal, and responsible marketing. It will also conduct periodic reviews of the governance and compliance practices of members, including their controls against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and will recommend corrective steps wherever gaps are found. The association describes the body as a structured channel between the industry and public authorities, and reports indicate that it will give particular attention to younger investors from Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities, who form a growing share of the crypto user base. The guidelines are said to draw on global practice and on the RBI's frameworks for self-regulatory organisations in the fintech sector.
Where Its Authority Ends
The SRB is not a regulator, and the association has stated clearly that it does not seek to replace statutory authorities. Its guidelines are voluntary, its reviews end in recommendations rather than penalties, and its reach extends only to firms that choose to join, which leaves out offshore platforms that continue to serve Indian users. This marks the chief difference from the model that Parliament described. Under the RBI's Omnibus Framework of March 2024 and the fintech framework of May 2024, a self-regulatory organisation is formally recognised by the regulator, which may withdraw that recognition if the body fails in its duties. The Standing Committee also asked that any delegation of functions to such organisations under the Securities Markets Code come with a defined accountability framework, a review mechanism for their decisions and supervisory powers for the regulator. The BWA body, at present, carries none of this legal backing, a limitation that the association itself anticipated in 2022 when it told the government that the industry could achieve only so much on a voluntary basis.
What Comes Next
The worth of the SRB will rest on three matters, namely how many exchanges and Web3 firms sign up, how firmly its reviews are carried out, and whether a statutory regulator eventually recognises its standards. The Standing Committee has since completed its oral evidence on VDAs and is awaiting a written response from the government before it prepares a further report. If the government does designate a regulator and an SRO route, the BWA body could become an early candidate for recognition, provided that it publishes its guidelines, review findings and complaint data, and keeps its oversight work distinct from the association's advocacy on taxation and banking access. Until then, the SRB is best understood as a voluntary rulebook under experienced leadership, which may set a useful floor for conduct across the sector but cannot yet protect investors in the way that law can.
Sources
Bharat Web3 Association. "Bharat Web3 Association Launches Self-Regulatory Body to Strengthen Governance and Compliance in the VDA Sector." Press release, reproduced by Newsheads, October 28, 2026. https://www.newsheads.in/tech/review/bharat-web3-association-launches-self-regulatory-body-to-strengthen-governance-and-compliance-in-the-vda-sector-article-73122
BFSI Network. "Bharat Web3 Association Launches Self-Regulatory Body for India's Crypto Sector; Ex-Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh to Chair." Elets BFSI, October 28, 2026. https://bfsi.eletsonline.com/bharat-web3-association-self-regulatory-body-vda-crypto-rohit-kumar-singh-praggya-das/
Outlook Money. "Bharat Web3 Association Establishes Self-Regulatory Framework for India's Crypto Industry." October 2026. https://www.outlookmoney.com/invest/bharat-web3-association-establishes-self-regulatory-framework-for-indias-crypto-industry
The Crypto Times. "Bharat Web3 Association Launches Crypto Self-Regulatory Body in India." October 28, 2026. https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/10/28/bharat-web3-association-launches-crypto-self-regulatory-body-in-india/
EconoTimes. "India's Crypto Industry Creates Self-Regulatory Body After July Panel Report." October 2026. https://econotimes.com/India-s-Crypto-Industry-Creates-Self-Regulatory-Body-After-July-Panel-Report-1766009
ZebPay. "BWA Unveils SRB to Strengthen Digital Asset Governance." October 2026. https://zebpay.com/in/blog/bwa-unveils-srb-to-strengthen-digital-asset-governance
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