India: Coinbase to suspend crypto payments

UPI is an instant real-time payment system designed by India’s National Payment Corporation to enable interbank transactions via mobile phone on Coinbase’s India services. The NPCI is a special unit of the Reserve Bank of India, under the country’s Ministry of Finance. The exchange has already revised its payment methods information on its website for Indian consumers, advising them to make sell orders via Immediate Payment Service (IMP).

Coinbase indicated in a statement that it was dedicated to collaborating with the NPCI and other appropriate authorities and was exploring alternative payment options.

The RBI has repeatedly expressed worry about cryptocurrency and suggested that it should be prohibited. Considering this, various sources said that aggregators and lenders had been urged to refrain from working with cryptocurrency exchanges. However, crypto exchanges have been able to operate in India thus far because of the industry’s regulatory vagueness, Bitcoinist concludes.