Following the denial from India’s local payment regulators, Coinbase, one of the top leading crypto exchanges in the world, has temporarily stopped issuing payments to its users in its newly opened branch in the country.
Coinbase Temporarily Ceased The Use Of UPI In India
Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange in the United States, announced the unexciting news of its decision to forestall the use of UPI to its clients in India just three days after its India branch was opened.
The United Payments Interface (UPI) is a payment platform under the rule of the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). Hence, the giant crypto firm uses it to receive buy orders from users on its platform in India. However, the crypto firm has improvised another payment means on its platform for its Indian clients as it encouraged them to place sell orders using Immediate Payment Service (IMP).
NPCI Denies Its Approval Of Coinbase Activities On UPI
The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) is a unique component of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Ministry of Finance.
Following the launching of Coinbase’s India branch on April 7, it announced that Indian investors could place buy orders via the UPI. However, the NPCI reacted to the announcement as it opened up to the public that it did not give its approval to any Crypto exchange to use the UPI payment portal under the RBI. Consequently, the statement prompted the action of the crypto firm to suspend its use of UPI.
In a bid to resolve the issue, Coinbase assured its users that it is currently working round the clock to resolve the situation with the regulatory bodies as it is determined to work hand in hand with the NPCI and other necessary bodies to make sure things are in order.
India Coinbase Customers Are Not Surprised
The report states that the situation does not move Coinbase users in India. It was as though they were expecting things to happen in that order. In his tweet on April 10, Aditya Singh, the owner of ‘Crypto India’, a popular channel on YouTube, confirmed that crypto investors are not surprised as their native crypto exchanges have suffered from the same fate since 2018. He added that it is quite saddening that regulators allow gambling apps to enjoy undisturbed payment services on UPI, whereas they outrightly disapprove crypto platforms from using the same services.
It is only natural for Indian investors to face unstable access to trading services in this current situation. Since last year, many rumours have been heard about the plans of the Indian government to ban crypto in the nation. However, the story has not been confirmed yet. The regulators are still striving to establish a standard regulatory structure for crypto in the country, putting crypto investors in distress since last year.
The deputy governor of RBI, Ravi T. Shankar and other government officials like him have clearly warned that they would waste no time banning digital assets in the country. However, despite the castigation from the majority of the regulator, digital assets are still very much in operation. Furthermore, India recently enacted a 30% tax law on every crypto transaction, just like that of gambling.
The fate of crypto in India is still not clear, and hence, Coinbase Ventures has halted the execution of its plans to invest a sum of $1M in Web3 and crypto firms in the country.