India should promote domestic Bitcoin mining as a strategic counterweight to gold, rather than leaning only on import curbs, according to Kashif Raza, Founder of Bitinning, India’s leading crypto education platform. He argues that the country cannot produce gold but can produce Bitcoin, thereby keeping revenue within the economy.
Raza listed mining as one of several fixes the government could have used to defend a record-low rupee. He said gold is a cultural necessity rather than an investment, so the duty mainly hurts households while a mineable competitor could earn dollars instead.
In an interview with BeInCrypto, Raza responded to the government’s recent push to defend the rupee. In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged households to avoid non-essential gold purchases for a year. Shortly after, India raised the import duty on gold and silver to 15% from 6%.
The appeal followed a sharp slide in the rupee, which has traded near 96.9 per dollar at record lows. Higher oil prices from the Iran conflict widened India’s import bill, with Brent crude surging to over $100.
Asked what India could have done differently, Raza offered a list. It included more transparent markets, better financial literacy, lower taxes on stock gains, and tighter outbound remittance limits. Promoting Bitcoin mining was his most striking suggestion.
Why Raza Wants India to Back Bitcoin Mining
His core argument is supply. India’s domestic gold production remains extremely limited at roughly 1.5 tonnes annually. Meanwhile, the country imports around 700–720 tonnes each year, paying for those imports in dollars. This sustained outflow of foreign currency puts direct pressure on the rupee.
Bitcoin works differently. “Bitcoin you don’t have to import,” Raza said. A country can produce it at home, with no shipment and no foreign-exchange bill attached.
“Bitcoin is a good store of value which is kind of competing with gold,” he said.
He laid out a full pipeline. India could mine Bitcoin domestically, supply it to local exchanges, and route it to retail buyers. The revenue would stay in the country.
Surplus production could then be exported. Under that model, Bitcoin brings dollars in rather than sending them out, reversing the dynamic that gold imports create.
Cryptocurrency mining is permitted in India, as there are currently no laws that ban or criminalize the activity. However, the country imposes a strict tax regime on digital assets.
Profit generated from cryptocurrencies, which are classified as Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), is subject to a 30% tax. In addition, a 1% Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) is levied on most crypto transactions based on the total transaction value.
Raza’s point is that policymakers should back the industry, not merely tolerate it. He also frames Bitcoin as a structural upgrade on gold.
The metal fails on divisibility, portability, and storage, he notes. Bitcoin solves all three and carries a fixed supply that no government can expand.
“Bitcoin has all its virtues of gold like it’s a it’s a digital commodity, no one owns it, no one has issued it, no one has created it and it’s a decentralized, it’s a neutral currency, no nation owns it,” Raza mentioned.
A Culture Tax, Not an Investment Tax
Raza is critical of the duty hike, and his reasoning forms the second half of the story. He called its timing “a bit worrying,” arguing Modi should have let the appeal work before taxing.
He explained gold is a cultural necessity, not a tradable investment most Indians would swap. Gold is woven into weddings and family planning, he explained, with families saving for a daughter’s marriage from birth.
“This is a part of a culture.And you can’t change cultures and beliefs,” Raza added.
Roughly 40% of India’s gold holdings are in five southern states, he noted, making it hard to shift behavior by decree.
The literacy gap compounds it. Raza estimates 75% to 78% of Indian adults are financially illiterate and struggle to think beyond gold. He says the duty made the metal costlier overnight, hurting ordinary households most.
That is why he believes a new asset matters more than a new tax. A promoted domestic Bitcoin industry, he argues, gives savers a path that does not rely on costly imports.
