Indian crypto exchange Koinex shuts operations citing uncertainty and disruption
Mumbai-based startups faced denials in payment services from payment gateways and banks, as well as faced blockage of transactions for trading of cryptocurrencies.
Indian Cryptocurrency exchange Koinex on Thursday announced its decision to shut down all of its digital assets exchange services and operations, citing uncertainty and disruption.
“The last 14 months have been tough to operate a digital assets trading business in India, on account of the closure of bank accounts holding user deposits,” Koinex’s Co-founder Rahul Raj wrote in a Medium blog post.
Mumbai-based startups faced denials in payment services from payment gateways and banks, as well as faced blockage of transactions for trading of digital assets, as per the post.
In April 2018, the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), barred banks from serving companies and individuals dealing in virtual currencies. Since then, several exchanges have files legal petitions again the RBI ban, however, the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court, and the next hearing is scheduled in July.
“Multiple delays by the government agencies in clarifying the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies despite our pending writ petition in the Supreme Court of India, coupled with regular disruption in our operations, the final decision has been taken after duly considering all the latest developments in the crypto and blockchain industry in India,” Rahul wrote.
Earlier this month, there were reports that India has proposed a draft bill banning cryptocurrency trading as well as suggesting a ten-year prison sentence and hefty fines for using cryptocurrencies.
These reports have created enough FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) in the Indian crypto trading community to result into a sharp decline in trading volumes, wrote Raj.
And now, Koinex is permanently disabling the digital assets trading services on all its platforms, effective 2.00 pm on Thursday, June 27, 2019.
“All open orders after this deadline will be automatically cancelled and the funds will be returned to corresponding wallets,” Raj added.
“The digital assets wallets will continue to be functional, and users will be required to withdraw all funds from the platform before 9.00 PM IST on July 15, 2019. Our customer support team will be available throughout this transition period, resolving all pending queries and issues for all our users to the utmost satisfaction,” stated Raj.
Koinex claims to have more than one million registered users, executed over 20 million orders, and recorded $3B+ in trading volume on its platform so far. The company was started by three co-founders Rahul Raj, Rakesh Yadav, and Aditya Naik in 2017.
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