Coinbase says it will not discontinue services in India, but is disabling signups

Image credits: Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Coinbase said Monday it disabled new user registration for its exchange product in India in June but remains committed to the country, where its operations have been in limbo for more than a year, issuing a rebuttal to media reports, including one in TechCrunch. He said otherwise, citing customer emails.

The US-based cryptocurrency exchange operator said the emails were received by some customers who did not meet the company’s updated criteria and do not represent Coinbase’s operations in India. The email stated that these users have until September 25 to transfer their funds before the company stops exchange services.

“We stopped allowing new user registrations for our exchange product in India in June this year. We maintain a strong technical center in the country and offer live products, including our Coinbase wallet. A Coinbase spokesperson said in a statement: We are committed to India for the long term and continue to explore ways to strengthen our presence in this important market.”

The eponymous exchange app from Coinbase, which is also an investor in top Indian cryptocurrency exchanges CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber, has less than 50,000 monthly active users in India, according to Sensor Tower data shared by an industry executive.

Coinbase was unable to make any headway with local authorities for over a year, when it launched the exchange in India. Progress with local officials has frustrated executives, including Durgesh Kaushik, who joined the company last year as senior director of market expansion, then left just months later.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong traveled to India last year to launch the exchange in the country by adding support for the locally popular payment tool UPI.

However, the payments body that oversees UPI immediately refused to acknowledge the launch of Coinbase in India and days later Coinbase suspended its support for the payments system.

Coinbase said at the time that it was committed to working with the NPCI and other relevant authorities and said it was experimenting with other payment methods, something that never materialized.

In May last year, Armstrong said Coinbase was forced to halt its trading service in India due to “informal pressure” from the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank.

Armstrong noted that cryptocurrency trading is not illegal in India — in fact, the South Asian country recently began taxing it — but there are “elements in the government there, including the Reserve Bank of India, who don’t seem to be concerned about it.” . Positively on it. And so they — in the press, it’s called a “shadow ban,” and they’re basically applying soft pressure behind the scenes to try to disrupt some of these payments, which may go through UPI.

Over the past five years, Indian authorities have maintained a cautious stance on cryptocurrencies, stressing the need for international cooperation to manage these digital assets.

The G20 countries unveiled a Leaders’ Declaration over the weekend which states that countries support the high-level recommendations issued by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on the regulation, oversight and oversight of crypto asset activities and markets and global stablecoin arrangements.

“We ask the Financial Stability Board and Shariah supervisory bodies to promote effective and timely implementation of these recommendations in a globally consistent manner to avoid regulatory arbitrage. We welcome the FSB and SSB’s joint action plan for crypto assets. IMF/Financial Stability Board Synthesis Paper, including the roadmap, which will support a coordinated and comprehensive policy and regulatory framework taking into account the full range of risks and exposures specific to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) and the continued global implementation of FATF standards to address money laundering and terrorism. Financing risks.”

The story, an earlier version of which said Coinbase planned to discontinue services in India, citing customer emails, has been fully updated with Coinbase’s statement.