Coinbase Restricted Some of Its Services in This Country!

In a recent development, cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase announced that it will suspend certain services for Indian users who fail to meet the platform’s updated standards. The decision was revealed via an email notification sent to affected users and created a stir in the Indian crypto community. Here are the details…

Coinbase caused panic in India

According to TechCrunch, Coinbase India sent email notifications on September 11, 2023, informing users that its services would be suspended until September 25. The email urged affected users to immediately withdraw any remaining funds from their accounts. However, it was later clarified by a Coinbase spokesperson that this email was not a general notification to all Indian citizens, but was specifically directed to users who violated the platform’s revised standards.

In the email shared by the spokesperson, “We are reaching out to inform you that we will be discontinuing all Coinbase Personal services linked to your account mentioned above. “Because we will now disable access to individual accounts that do not meet our current standards for these services.” More importantly, the email reassured users that their access to Coinbase Cloud services would not be affected, ensuring customers could continue to access their accounts through those services.

Statements have arrived

A Coinbase spokesperson later reiterated in a statement that email notifications were only sent to account holders found to be in violation of the platform’s current standards. “During a recent routine review of our systems, we identified some accounts that no longer met our updated standards,” the spokesperson said. Therefore we will disable these accounts. “We will allow customers to update their information at a later date,” he said.

Most importantly, funds belonging to affected users remain safe with Coinbase, the spokesperson said. He emphasized that users will have the opportunity to withdraw their balances or transfer them to other cryptocurrency service providers until the suspension takes effect on September 25. Simultaneously, Coinbase reportedly blocked new Indian users from registering with the exchange, instead encouraging them to download Coinbase Wallet, a wallet app offered by the platform.

What can users do now?

This latest development comes a year and a half after Coinbase first stepped into the Indian market. The exchange started its operations in India on April 7, 2022. However, just a few days later, on April 11, 2022, Coinbase discontinued payment services through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on its platform for Indian users. This decision was attributed to regulatory pressures within the country. Despite the shutdown of UPI services, Indian users who had previously purchased cryptocurrencies from Coinbase were able to exchange their existing assets through peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions on the platform. However, as of the time of writing, Indian users on Coinbase are limited to using existing crypto assets in their accounts.