Local Crypto Exchanges are Circumventing India’s New Bitcoin Ban

Local Crypto Exchanges are Circumventing India’s New Bitcoin Ban:

According to Coindelta co-founder Shubham Yadav, cryptocurrency exchanges in India can no longer process fiat-to-crypto trades and have shifted their business model to crypto-to-crypto trading.

Central Bank’s Ban on Crypto Stands:
In April, CCN reported that the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, first imposed its ban on cryptocurrency trading, effectively disallowing local banks from providing banking services to crypto exchanges. On July 3, the Supreme Court of India refused to lift RBI’s cryptocurrency trading ban, reaffirming that banks cannot deal with cryptocurrency exchanges in India.

While the Supreme Court of India is expected to conduct a hearing to consider the case of the cryptocurrency industry against the RBI’s ban, until the court officially reverses the existing ban cryptocurrency trading, local exchanges will not be able to support fiat-to-crypto trades.

In an interview with Quartz, Yadav, the founder of a local cryptocurrency trading platform Coindelta, said that local exchanges have moved on from fiat-to-cryptocurrency trades to crypto-only trades, and are currently competing against major exchanges like Binance.

More importantly, without having support for the Indian rupee, local investors have no motive or incentive to utilize exchanges in India over major platforms such as Binance, Bittrex, and Huobi. Initially, exchanges in India served the local market and process fiat-to-crypto trades. Within months, local exchanges were forced to pivot their businesses to compete with multi-billion dollar platforms with significant reach, influence, resources, and capital.