On Monday, reports surfaced that Coinbase had sent an email to customers asking them to withdraw their funds by September 25. Hours later, Coinbase clarified that the exchange would not be shutting down operations in India. The exchange reportedly said it would not cease operations in India for all users. Just days ago, world leaders expressed cryptocurrency-related suggestions and concerns at the G20 Summit and the Global Fintech Event 2023, both of which took place in India last week.
Earlier on Monday, media reports said Coinbase would cease services in India, citing an email some of its Indian users received over the weekend. This email instructs the recipient to withdraw any funds stored on the exchange.
Sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Gadgets 360 that the exchange only sent the email to those users who were determined to have violated its policies. More relevant updates are still awaited from the company.
Meanwhile, TechCrunch Report It said the company had also stopped new registrations for Indian users. “During a recent routine review of our systems, it may have been discovered that certain accounts no longer meet our updated criteria. Therefore, we will disable these accounts and allow customers to update their information at a later time,” a company spokesperson told the publication.
Users of Indian cryptocurrency exchanges are required to provide KYC related information as per company guidelines to access services in compliance with most government regulations.
Coinbase launched its service in India in April last year. In August 2022, when Coinbase announced that it would allow Indian users to purchase cryptocurrencies on its app through UPI payments, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said it had not authorized Coinbase to provide this feature.
Following NPCI’s clarification, the exchange stopped the launch of the feature and it was never rolled out to users in the country.
The government and the Reserve Bank of India have not supported the promotion of crypto-related activities in the country due to the lack of clarity caused by the lack of crypto regulations, which was also criticized by then-Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
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