Cryptocurrency exchange chief executive officer shut down trading services in India on Tuesday due to “unofficial pressure” from the Reserve Bank of India, addressing a notable Indian episode for the first time in a month Said.
Nasdaq listed company Launched the crypto trading service bearing its name in India The app allowed users of the world’s second-largest Internet market to purchase crypto tokens using UPI, a very popular Indian payment infrastructure built by a coalition of retail banks.But just three days after its launch, the company Rolled back the service No explanation.
The move followed a strange statement by the National Settlement Corporation of India, the governing body that oversees UPI in India. Refused to approve UPI support in Coinbase apps..
Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s co-founder and CEO, was asked about India’s episode of the company’s earnings announcement and said Coinbase had disabled UPI “due to informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India.” I did.
Armstrong is a cryptocurrency transaction Not illegal in India — In fact, South Asian countries Just recently started taxation —But there are elements that seem less positive to the government, including the Reserve Bank of India, and they — are called “shadow vans” in the press. Basically, they are trying to put soft pressure behind the scenes to invalidate some of these payments that may go through the UPI, “he said.
The Reserve Bank of India’s actions “may actually violate the Supreme Court’s ruling, and it would be interesting to know if it goes there. But our preference is, in fact, I think it’s about working with them to focus on rebooting. I think there are many ways to restart with other payment methods, and that’s the default way in the future, “he says. I did.
The Reserve Bank of India had previously banned cryptocurrencies — a decision overturned by the state’s Supreme Court over two years ago — but the central bank informally puts pressure on banks to engage in cryptocurrency exchanges. Continuing, TechCrunch previously reported.
This pressure and bank compliance is why India’s popular crypto exchanges regularly face problems with fiat support in the country. Cryptocurrency exchange executives told TechCrunch that they too could challenge the actions of central banks in court, but such a court battle could take years, in the meantime. Warned that their business could disappear. India hopes that the central bank will someday ease its stance on its own.
Armstrong added:
One of our theories here, my theory is that actions generate information. Therefore, when we go to these countries around the world, it is not always clear, everyone is in various states of education of the kind about cryptography or its lack. And there’s a lot of work to go to meet with policy makers around the world and teach them what AML features are and what the positive benefits are. People in these countries generally really really want cryptography. And to me, it says that in most parts of the free world and democracy, cryptography will eventually become regulated and legal, but it will take time for them to get used to it.
And the way we move the conversation forward is to take action. So even if you don’t know exactly how it will be done, it will start launching. Since the reaction will be received, the discussion will be forced, so we will launch it. Now the media is talking about it in India. There is now a meeting to discuss how we can take the next step. This is generally our approach with international expansion.
