In a rather alarming and worrying move for Indian crypto investors, crypto exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX have disabled rupee deposits for the purchase of cryptocurrency through UPI.?
This has spurred crypto investors to renew demands for the long impending regulatory clarity in the country.
The repeated delays in roll out of the much awaited crypto bill has further ensured that the crypto future remains cloudy in India.?
Besides the Finance Minister and govt signaling its stance against crypto after levying heavy taxes and other regulations on it which came into effect this month, India¡¯s Central Bank RBI, too, has for long backed a ban on cryptocurrency.
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And this latest move by crypto exchanges yesterday follows a one-line statement last week by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the operator of UPI. The NPCI had stated that it was unaware of UPI¡¯s use by any crypto exchange.
Post that, CoinSwitch was not allowing users to load deposits on its app, although they could still withdraw funds.
As per a Reuters report, a twitter user Avijit Debnath urged the crypto exchange by saying "You have closed the INR deposit without any information. At least let us know how long it will be closed."?
CoinSwitch reportedly says it has more than 15 million users, as per Reuters.
An industry source with direct knowledge of the matter reportedly said the decision by CoinSwitch to halt UPI acceptance resulted from 'regulatory uncertainty' after the NPCI statement.
Rival exchange WazirX also reportedly told users on Twitter, "UPI is not available," adding that it had no estimated time limit to fix the issue.
Users had expressed concern earlier, when the company said on April 1 that it was disabling rupee deposits via popular payments app MobiKwik "until further notice".
While there is no official data available on the size of India's crypto market, industry estimates say the number of investors ranges from 15 million to 20 million, with total holdings of about 400 billion rupees ($5.25 billion), as per Reuters.
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