After Income Tax officials issued notices to over 500K HNIs trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in India, it appears that the cryptocurrency exchanges in India are destined to meet the same fate as their Chinese counterparts.
It is to be noted that China never banned cryptocurrency exchanges directly; however, created a difficult circumstance by banning ICOs and issuing advisories and circulars (by lower authorities) that led BTCC, ViaBTC and other Chinese exchanges to shut down their exchange operations in Mainland.
In a related development in India, Bitcoin traders and their corresponding exchanges are now facing difficulties in digital payment. At times, the transactions are getting delayed by a day or more. One of the Bitcoin traders, Soumya Banerjee said, “I transferred money at 5 AM in the morning and my bank debited the same $780.5 (INR 50K). Even after 13 hours, it’s not there in my Unocoin wallet. It’s really bad.”
More or less, Inc42 has received similar complaints from other exchange users too. Among the other issues, speaking to Inc42, another user Lalit Kansal informed that enabling Google authenticator has created big issues for his Koinex wallet. The authenticator has erased his private key, and now, he is unable to access the Bitcoin he bought. The complaint, made on December 23, is yet to be entertained.
Last week, Andhra Pradesh-based Bitcoin India, a multi-cryptocurrency exchange and Bitcoin mining platform had reportedly locked out the accounts of some of its cryptocurrency traders. The traders were unable to access their accounts and money for more than a month.
So, is it entirely the fault of exchanges? Not exactly. Indian cryptocurrency exchanges have got bigger issues to deal with.
In line with the development, Zebpay has sent an update to its Bitcoin traders stating,
Another cryptocurrency exchange Ethx India has sent a similar notice to its users.
Writing “crypto payment” or using any cryptocurrency-related keywords such as Bitcoin, Ripple Ethereum etc in the ‘Remarks’ space appears to have created such payment delays, stated Atulya Bhatt, cofounder BuyUCoin. “As far as bank accounts are concerned, we have not received any call from our banks; however, we are facing issues while transacting through payment gateway.”
To know more visit https://inc42.com/buzz/indian-cryptocurrency-exchanges-bitcoin/