One of the largest Indian cryptocurrency exchanges, Unocoin, has temporarily disabled its Indian rupee (INR) withdrawals and deposits options after instructions from the country’s central bank, the company said on Monday. Unocoin’s decision is also in force for its newly established multi-assets trading subsidiary, Unodax exchange.
In April, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a circular to all financial institutions including banks, prohibiting them from providing services to companies in the cryptocurrency sector. The decision came into force on July 5.
“As per orders from RBI, bank INR withdrawals and INR Deposits have temporarily been disabled. Once an alternative method of funding is identified and deployed, we will resume the deposit and withdrawal services,” the exchange explained in a statement.
The Unocoin and Unodax suspension does not affect crypto deposits and withdrawals. Unocoin customers can continue to use their rupee balances for buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) while crypto-INR pairs are still operational on Unodax.
Unocoin offers trading in BTC and ETH for INR while Unodax, which launched at the end of May, supports many more cryptos, including Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Gold (BTG) and Basic Attention Coin (BAT (LON:BATS)) packed in pairs with INR, BTC, ETH and XRP.
The Reserve Bank of India’s ban
Several petitions challenged RBI ban in the Supreme Court, which initially backed the central bank move while analyzing the case. Notable petitioners are the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the Ahmedabad-based crypto firm Kali Digital Eco-Systems. The court was expected to announce a ruling on Friday, July 20. However, the institution had not reached a decision and instead moved the hearing’s date to September 11.
Earlier this month, another Indian cryptocurrency exchange, Zebpay, halted rupee deposits and withdrawals.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
