CoinSwitch Kuber And WazirX Temporarily Block INR Deposits UPI, IMPS, RTGS, NEFT are currently not working and Indian crypto investors are worried over their investment strategies
By Teena Jose
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Amid regulatory concerns, Indian crypto exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX have temporarily disabled rupee deposits for purchase of crypto currencies using a widely-used state-backed transfer systems.
UPI, IMPS, RTGS, NEFT are currently not working and Indian crypto investors are worried over their investment strategies.
NPCI on April 7 tweeted, "With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of crypto currencies using UPI, National Payments of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI." The tweet accompanied a letter stating the same.
"While we appreciate and respect the notification from NPCI, it is also important to emphasize that a letter like this can lead to confusion amongst the users or investors as to what is legal or illegal when it comes to payment for Virtual Digital Assets (VDA)," said Om Malviya, president of Tezos, an open source blockchain platform, in a statement .
According to a report, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while replying to the Budget debate in the Rajya Sabha, on the decision to levy 30 per cent tax on virtual asset gains, said, "Taxing the virtual assets does not mean that the government is legalizing it. The government is not doing anything to legalize or ban it at this stage."
CoinSwitch app was not allowing its users to load deposits on Wednesday. Meanwhile WazirX tweeted, "UPI is not available." A report said INR deposits are now disabled, however, the withdrawals are still allowed on the apps.
Industry estimates suggest that there are 15 million to 20 million crypto investors in India, with total crypto holdings of around INR 40,000 crore.
