How Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Just Destroyed the Crypto Exchange Industry For All of India
44 sats \ 12 comments \ @Coinosphere 17 Apr 2022 bitcoin freebie
Every Indian who trades bitcoin or any kind of cryptocurrency should be wanting to burn down the brand-new Coinbase office in New Delhi. It won't be open long, regardless.
Armstrong just officially announced moving Coinbase into India at the start of this month, but his press release said an incredibly stupid thing, which got all bitcoin & crypto exchanges across the country penalized!
Just before he opened the office, there was already a new law coming into effect that puts a 30% tax on all crypto income, without allowing loss offsets or deductions. That was already devastating to the industry and it went into effect on April 1. This was all announced just before his office opened, and liquidity at all exchanges in the country has dried up 75% already.
Being the ignoramus that he is, Armstrong found a way to destroy the last 25% as well.
The most popular network to get rupees into 3rd party accounts in India is called the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), much like ACH in the US or SEPA in the Eurozone. UPI is owned and run fully by the central bank of India, the RBI. The RBI absolutely hates all things crypto, and are the major sponsor of the tax bill above.
Yet somehow the banks partnered with crypto exchanges were still allowed to use UPI to get rupees into & out of exchanges, that is, until Tuesday the 5th. On that day Armstrong's press release went out, saying that Coinbase had opened an office in New Delhi, and made the claim that they would accept rupees using UPI. (!)
On Wednesday the 6th, all hell broke out down there. UPI's parent company responded that NO crypto exchanges could use UPI: https://twitter.com/NPCI_NPCI/status/1512091446865633285
Apparently it was OK for banks to make that money as long as no one told the RBI that they were fostering bitcoin/crypto adoption. It's no longer OK now, and ALL crypto exchanges nationwide have removed UPI support already. The #2 way to allow rupees, Mobikwik, was removed the month prior. So basically all rupees on all Indian exchanges are completely stuck unless users convert them to crypto and move them out to local wallets. That pretty much destroyed the entire national industry right there.
Time to start teaching Indians how to use Bisq!
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @TheBTCManual 17 Apr 2022
That's a shame, but lets see how the Indian P2P market will grow, perhaps its a catalyst for it, Bisq, hodldhol, and the rest could seriously benefit from it bringing more liquidity to their platforms and grow it
GIving money to coinbase, is such a pain, in South Africa where I am, its illegal to use a foreign exchange, thats why we have 11 local exchanges to support the growing demand.
I didn't know you couldn't right off losses, wow that really kills the trade, so its all about the HODL then?
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32 sats \ 1 reply \ @goon_retired_acc 17 Apr 2022
"burn down the brand-new Coinbase office" That should be the default approach of any sane person.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jeff 17 Apr 2022
Yah, I don't get this thinking. If Coinbase knew in advance...they would have probably never even opened let alone posted that. They are a victime here.
If people are angry, at least start with the UPI/RBI offices...
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Ge 17 Apr 2022 freebie
Geez reading things like this is crazy I love Stacker! so much signal also anyone think it's weird how coinbase is going dark mode for I wanna say 3 or 4 weeks all together through out 2022 doing the math thats a couple 100 billion dollars (Dr. Evil voice) Talking with other Bitcoiners some think maybe they could be coming under regulation there is no reason why they would ever shut down for that long and lose that much fiat unless it were serious.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 17 Apr 2022
I'm not a fan of Coinbase....but why not blame the government? They are are whats holding you down....
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5 sats \ 5 replies \ @cointastical 17 Apr 2022
It was only a matter of time then. Coinbase just caused it to happen sooner rather than later.
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
[Larger image]
https://twitter.com/NPCI_NPCI/status/1512091446865633285
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @cointastical 17 Apr 2022
There are a number of P2P trading platforms. Yes, they can be less convenient than a centralized exchange that uses a common payment method. And yes, they can be more expensive as well. But just like in Nigeria, and Kenya, for example, buying and selling bitcoin via P2P methods can grow to where it becomes a very significant volume.
Here's a list that may be of use:
Person-to-Person bitcoin Trading Platforms https://github.com/cointastical/P2P-Trading-Exchanges
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinosphere OP 17 Apr 2022 freebie
In India the standard for what makes an exchange P2P is far lower than your average Bitcoiner's standard. They use that term for any exchange that allows one user to pay another directly, but of course that's no different than localbitcoins' model.
I'm sure WazirX's "P2P" will work for the time being but it's a very centralized exchange in danger of being the RBI's next victim at any time.
We really need to get Bisq promoted over there asap. Tens of Millions of Indians just lost their platforms.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @cointastical 17 Apr 2022
I'm sure this has caused disruption for quite a number of people and businesses. For example:
• Coinbase halted UPI 3 days after its India launch.
• 70% of WazirX's business has eroded since Mobikwik cut services to crypto exchanges
• Banks are at will to cut off services to crypto companies.
India's rank may've improved in ease of doing biz, but struggles continue!
https://twitter.com/vargabbakshi/status/1514123604828762116
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cointastical 17 Apr 2022
Hmm...
India's central bank has approved another chunk of 60 million users on UPI for Meta Platforms, Inc-owned WhatsApp.
With this, WhatsApp will be able to expand the service to its 100 million users in India.
WhatsApp Gets India Nod to Raise UPI User Base To 100M While Coinbase And Other Crypto Exchanges Face Snub https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cryptocurrency/22/04/26628009/whatsapp-gets-india-nod-to-raise-upi-user-base-to-100m-while-coinbase-and-other-crypto-exc
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cointastical 17 Apr 2022
How do they allocate these 60 million slots -- first come first serve?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @P2P_bitcoin 18 Apr 2022
Here's another article on this development:
Indian Crypto Exchanges Go P2P to Skirt Payment Channel Restrictions | BeInCrypto #20779 https://beincrypto.com/indian-crypto-exchanges-p2p-skirt-payment-channel-restrictions
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