Cryptocurrency in India: Payments frozen, trading affected

tech.hindustantimes.com:

When Surojit Chatterjee walked on stage at a Coinbase Global Inc. conference in Bengaluru, India, on April 7, he had little reason to anticipate the fallout that would shortly ensue. Chatterjee, the company’s chief product officer, told the assembled audience that crypto investors would now be able to use the country’s online retail payments system to transfer funds to its local exchange.

Hours after Chatterjee’s announcement, the central bank-backed entity that runs the system — called United Payments Interface — said it was “not aware” of any crypto exchange using the network. Within three days of the event, Coinbase had halted rupee transfers to its trading app via UPI.

The abrupt reversal left Coinbase customers without any way of funding their accounts with rupees, dealing a blow to its expansion plans in India. “We are committed to working with NPCI and other relevant authorities to ensure we are aligned with local expectations and industry norms,” a spokesperson for Coinbase said in a statement to Bloomberg on April 11, referring to the National Payments Corporation of India, which operates UPI.

Coinbase wasn’t the only one affected. Since its announcement, at least four other companies that provide crypto-related trading services have either suspended rupee deposits or seen banks and payment gateways pull support for money transfers onto their platforms, according to executives at the firms and local media reports. Two other exchanges had lost support for rupee deposits from a payment service provider before the incident.

Those actions put additional pressure on already falling trading volumes, exchange executives said. The industry is also bracing for a new tax on all crypto transactions above a certain size that