When users in India try to buy any of the tokens featured on the Coinbase app, they are told that the UPI payment option is “currently unavailable.” According to users, testing, and the company’s own support website, the app encourages users to try another payment method, although it presently does not allow any other method for purchases in the country. (Immediate Payment Service is still supported for selling tokens.)
The National Payments Corporation of India, the regulating organisation that controls UPI in India, made a ridiculous comment hours after Coinbase’s India launch earlier this week stating that it was unaware of any crypto exchange using UPI payments.
In the last several weeks, Coinbase has been testing UPI payments in the Indian market.
The Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, is a popular real-time payment system that may be used for both retail and peer-to-peer payments. Regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and overseen by the National Payments Corporation of India, this platform (NPCI).
“Purchases with this payment method are temporarily unavailable,” Coinbase’s mobile application said on Sunday.
“Following the explanation, they (Coinbase) contacted NPCI. Cryptocurrencies aren’t legal money in India, thus this doesn’t signify anything. The NPCI, for example, would not allow it until it is legally sanctioned “a source familiar with the subject said, adding that crypto exchanges were also adopting UPI through payment aggregators because of regulatory uncertainties.
The Person Said that Payment aggregators are partnering with exchanges and are operating through multiple merchant IDs (MID). Informally, they have been told about the current regulations, but there is business interest for them to process these payments for crypto.
chairman of the Payments Council of India and founder of payment gateway service CCAvenue. “Crypto exchanges are known to keep changing and using different merchant IDs at different points of time. Everything is a cat and mouse game, wherever they find that their ID is getting blocked they move on to another one. So, this thing is a continuous process. We have a dedicated team at CCAvenue that keeps checking the seven-eight exchanges that are there,” he added.
Other Indian crypto exchanges, on the other hand, continue to accept UPI payments.
Many times, the Reserve Bank of India has expressed its displeasure with cryptocurrency and suggested that it should be outlawed altogether. Many people in the financial services industry now say they’ve been advised not to cooperate with crypto exchanges. However, the crypto-exchange has so far.
Coinbase has temporarily halted its upi service after a clarification from the National Payments Corporation of India (Npci).
Because MIDs do not identify the basis for a transaction, banks aren’t instantly aware of it, and that’s why Coinbase UPI was already operational in India before it was officially announced, according to one source. It’s also important for payment service providers, such as aggregators, to comprehend and follow NPCI’s notice last week, a source
According to a report from ET on Saturday, fintech company Mobikwik has suspended its bitcoin wallet purchases due to regulatory uncertainties. When it came to cryptocurrency transactions in India, Mobikwik was one of the most popular e-wallets available.
While Coinbase’s much-anticipated debut was marred by controversy, creator Brian Armstrong was busy lobbying for crypto in India. Then he met with Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to discuss crypto and blockchain.
