Coinbase India Suspends UPI Payments Shortly After Launch
- The exchange has stopped accepting payments through the United Payments Interface system only three days after its launch in India.
- The system is governed by the National Payment Corporation of India, which said it was “not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI” only hours after the exchange was launched.
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Popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has stopped accepting payments from the United Payments Interface (UPI) only three days after launching in India, the Economic Times reported on 10 April.
The crypto exchange has already updated its payment method information for Indian users, asking then to begin using the Immediate Payment Service (IMP) to place sell orders. The UPI — which was made central to Coinbase’s services in the area — is an instant real-time payment system developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate inter-bank transactions through mobile devices.
On Thursday, hours after Coinbase began trading in India, the NPCI said it was “not aware of any crypto exchange” using the UPI system. In response, a Coinbase spokesperson noted the company was actively experimenting with a number of payment methods and partners in India to make crypto purchases seamless, which included the UPI system. He said further:
“We are aware of the recent statement published by the NPCI regarding the use of UPI by cryptocurrency exchanges. We are committed to working with NPCI and other relevant authorities to ensure that we are aligned with local expectations and industry norms.”
Outlook India also reported that MobiKwik — the most used wallet for crypto transactions in India — has also stopped its services to “all major crypto exchanges” in the country amid regulatory uncertainty.
- A little over $13 million in altcoins were sent to crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase in the past 24 hours, which is in accordance with a September court order.
- The court ordered a phased liquidation process, which allows the bankruptcy estate to sell $3.4 billion worth of digital assets over a certain period of time.
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- Coinbase’s Base blockchain was made available to the public on Wednesday, featuring over 100 dApps and services as part of its ecosystem.
- In order to show its capabilities and promote its mainnet partners, Base has also launched an event called “Onchain Summer” that will allow users to mint exclusive NFTs on the network.
- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.