Coinbase made it clear on Monday that it would not shut down its operations in India, hours after reports surfaced that it had sent an email to customers asking them to withdraw their funds by September 25. The exchange reportedly stated that it would not shut down its operations in India for all users. The confusion over the company’s services in India comes just days after crypto-related suggestions and concerns were raised by world leaders during the G20 Summit and Global Fintech Fest 2023, both held in the country last week.
Media reports earlier on Monday claimed that Coinbase would discontinue its services in India, citing an email that some of Coinbase’s Indian users received over the weekend. This email instructed the recipients to withdraw all funds stored at the exchange.
The exchange only sent this email to users found to be in violation of its policies, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to DailyExpertNews. More updates on this from the company’s side are still pending.
Meanwhile, a TechCrunch report states that the company has also halted new user registrations in India. “It is possible that a recent routine review of our systems identified some accounts that no longer meet our updated standards. We will therefore disable these accounts and allow customers to update their information at a later date,” a company spokesperson told the publication.
Users of crypto exchanges in India are required to provide KYC-related information as per company guidelines to access services in compliance with most government regulations.
Coinbase launched its services in India in April last year. When Coinbase announced in August 2022 that it would let Indian users buy crypto on its app via UPI payments, the National Payments Corporations of India (NPCI) said it had not given Coinbase permission to offer the feature.
The exchange halted the release of this feature after the NPCI’s clarification and it was never rolled out to users in the country.
Due to a lack of clarity caused by the absence of crypto regulations, the government and the RBI have not supported promoting crypto-related activities in the country, which was also criticized by Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong at the time.
