Did "Informal Pressure" From RBI Halt Coinbase Operations In India?

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Did "informal pressure" from the RBI halt Coinbase's operations in India?

On April 7, Nasdaq-listed Coinbase launched its crypto exchange service operations in India. But only three days after its launch, the firm rolled back its services. 

In a month since its trading halt, the company's CEO Brian Armstrong has finally commented on the situation during an earnings call on May 10. 

According to the CEO's statement, Coinbase halted trading service in the country as it was receiving "informal pressure" from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to prevent crypto trade within its boundaries. 

The episode took place in April and was followed by a statement by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that governs UPI. 

The Coinbase app allowed Indian users to use UPI to buy crypto tokens. That was a huge leap in the world's second-largest internet market. UPI is a highly popular Indian payment infrastructure built by the joint efforts of retail banks. The statement by NPCI refused to acknowledge UPI support on the Coinbase app.

Statement by NPCI as on 7th April 2022. With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of Cryptocurrencies using UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI. Please see attached document pic.twitter.com/lGTcaSLKeC

A report in Tech Crunch stated that Armstrong noted that the app no longer used UPI "because of some informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India".

Although cryptocurrency is not banned in India, Armstrong said that "elements in the government there, including at Reserve Bank of India, who don't seem to be as positive on it." 

He added that the authorities were essentially exerting subtle pressure