Coinbase halts UPI payments three days after India launch

“Purchases with this payment method are temporarily unavailable,” Coinbase’s mobile application said.

ETtech

Screenshot of Coinbase mobile application.

Coinbase did not immediately respond to ET’s query seeking comment.

The world’s largest exchange, which announced its India entry through a
big-bang event held in Bengaluru on April 7, had come under the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) scanner after it said it will allow users to purchase cryptocurrencies using UPI.

ET reported on April 9 that the company’s decision to allow clients to use (UPI) – a key digital payments railroad – for buying
cryptocurrencies in India had come under
regulatory scrutiny, as per sources directly briefed on the matter.

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UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by the NPCI to facilitate inter-bank transactions using a mobile phone. ” We are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI,” NPCI had said in a statement on April 7.

Meanwhile, sources also told ETtech that fintech firm Mobikwik, which was facilitating cryptocurrency purchases through its wallet,
had stopped the service amid the regulatory uncertainty. Mobikwik was one of the most used e-wallets for cryptocurrency transactions in India.