Most big crypto exchanges such as CoinSwitch Kuber, WazirX and CoinDCX have suspended taking rupee deposits via the instant real-time payment system- Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The decision was taken after a statement released by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) last week saying that it was unaware of any crypto exchange operating in India that allows buying crypto using UPI. Hence, the crypto exchanges have halted accepting money through UPI from the investors due to regulatory uncertainty.
Crypto investors in India preferred the most accessible UPI payment mode to transfer money to buy cryptocurrency from the crypto exchanges. The suspension significantly impacted the crypto investors who used the UPI payment method.
Moreover, limited banking options are left with the big crypto exchanges in India for rupee deposits. WazirX crypto has announced that UPI is not available, and it further mentioned that it had no estimated time to fix the issue with UPI deposits. Currently, the exchange is accepting rupee deposits via net banking and person-to-person (P2P) transfers. Moreover, CoinSwitch completely stopped taking rupee deposits, including UPI and bank transfers such as NEFT, RTGS and IMPS. CoinDCX has also joined the list and disabled the option to top up the in-app wallet using UPI and IMPS.
However, the rupee withdrawals were working fine on exchanges.
India has had a hot-and-cold relationship with cryptocurrencies in the past few years. In 2018, RBI effectively banned crypto transactions and ordered banks not to facilitate them, but the Supreme Court struck down the RBI’s order in March 2020.
However, despite the pandemic, cryptocurrencies have performed exceedingly well in the recent past. The Indians are flocking to cryptocurrencies like never before. As per the sources, the overall transaction value of UPI topped $1 trillion in the last financial year.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at namita.shah@cleartax.in
I’m a chartered accountant and a functional CA writer by profession. Reading and travelling in free time enhances my creativity in work. I enjoy exploring my creative side, and so I keep myself engaged in learning new skills.
