Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has discontinued its payment services through the United Payments Interface, or UPI, to its users from India.
What exactly is this UPI?
UPI, or the United Payments Interface, is a payment portal on Coinbase. It is operated by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which enables buy orders on Coinbase’s India services. The NPCI is a special division of the Central Bank of India, which is the Reserve Bank of India.
Users from India have already been informed by the crypto exchange, urging them to try out the Immediate Payment Service (IMP) to place sell orders.
No legal recognition
Last week, the NPCI said in a statement that it does not recognize the legal status of cryptocurrency exchanges using the UPI. The reason for the (temporary) suspension may have arisen from this comment:
“Referring to some media reports about purchasing cryptocurrencies with UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchanges that UPI uses.”
no annoyance
Still, users from India don’t seem to be annoyed by this sudden suspension. According to the co-founder of the YouTube channel ‘Crypto India’, Indian exchanges have been struggling with payment problems since 2018. He Tweet the following about this:
Coinbase disabled UPI service in India few days after NPCI statement.
This is not new, Indian exchanges have also been facing payment service problem since 2018.
Weird fact – Actual gambling apps get proper payment service support while crypto exchanges are being alienated.
— Aditya Singh (@CryptooAdy) Apr 10, 2022
The government of India has had some difficulty in finding a suitable regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. This is given that crypto market participants have endured several moments since last year where it looked like crypto would be banned in the country.
According to some Indian officials, such as T. Rabi Sankar, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India, a complete crypto ban should be imposed. However, no such ban has yet taken place as the country introduced a 30% tax on crypto trading on March 31. This tax is comparable to the tax on gambling in India. However, it is not known whether the country will introduce a change to this at a later date.