Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has disabled Unified Payment Interface (UPI) support for users in India. It is reported by the Economic Times.

UPI is a real-time mobile payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate interbank transactions.

The interface is regulated by the National Reserve Bank (RBI) and works by instantly transferring funds between two accounts on a mobile platform.

According to the publication, when choosing this method in the mobile application of the exchange, a message appears:

“Purchases made with this payment method are temporarily unavailable.”

On April 7, Coinbase announced its entry into the Indian market. During the presentation, the company’s product director, Surojit Chatterjee, described the use of UPI as the first step towards purchasing digital assets on the platform.

On the same day, the operator of the NPCI interface stated that the company was “not aware of any cryptocurrency exchanges using UPI.”

Statement by NPCI dated April 7, 2022. Referring to some recent media reports regarding the purchase of Cryptocurrencies using UPI, the National Payments Authority of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchanges using UPI. See attached document pic.twitter.com/lGTcaSLKeC

— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) April 7, 2022

In a statement published by Coinbase to Outlook, the company said it was committed to engaging with the NPCI and other regulators to comply with regulations.

“[…] “We are actively experimenting with a range of payment methods and partners so that our customers can freely purchase cryptocurrency.”

In January 2022, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a unified approach in establishing a regulatory framework for the crypto industry.

Prior to this, the Indian public received conflicting signals from the authorities: from a complete ban of digital currencies, including criminal liability, to possible regulation as assets.

In April, India introduced a 30% tax and a controversial 1% fee on profits from cryptocurrency transactions. TDS. Earlier, the country’s Ministry of Finance determined that when calculating taxes, traders cannot recoup losses on one digital asset with profits on another.

Recall that in February 2022, the head of the RBI, Shaktikanta Das, warned investors not to invest in cryptocurrency.