Multiple Crypto Exchanges in India Freeze Rupee Deposits

• Taxes on earnings from the transfer of virtual assets will be taxed from this month.
• At least four other cryptocurrency trading sites have prohibited rupee deposits.

An underlying question between crypto exchanges and the National Payments Corporation of India, which handles the United Payments Interface (UPI), has led to a freeze on all cryptocurrency payments in India.

Taxes on earnings from the transfer of virtual assets, such as Bitcoin will be imposed by the Indian government this month. But, according to Bloomberg, Coinbase product manager Surojit Chatterjee made an unexpected revelation that has unintended consequences for the Indian crypto sector.

Issues Despite Crypto Regulation

Coinbase immediately halted all rupee transactions via its UPI trading app within three days of the occurrence. Unfortunately, this was not the first time Coinbase had a problem. As a result of this decision, at least four other cryptocurrency trading sites have prohibited rupee deposits or had banks and payment gateways remove support for money transactions on their platforms.

Indian crypto investors may now transfer cash to the country’s local exchange via the country’s online retail payments system, according to the company’s chief product officer, Chatterjee, who announced on April 7 at a Coinbase Global Inc. conference in Bengaluru, India. Hours after Chatterjee’s discovery, the central bank-backed National Payments Corporation of India, which manages the United Payments Interface, claimed it was “not aware” of any crypto trades utilizing the network.

Three days after the event, Coinbase blocked UPI transfers of rupees to its app. In other words, this meant that Coinbase clients could not use rupees to finance their accounts, which was bad news for the company’s intentions to expand in India. In addition, there was a notable lack of support for rupee deposits on two other exchanges before the event.