Exchange Returns to India After Two Years. Here’s What to Expect

Coinbase has resumed onboarding users in India after more than two years, marking its first step back into a market it abruptly exited in 2023 following regulatory friction over payment rails.

The exchange is again allowing new registrations and crypto-to-crypto trading, with plans to reintroduce a fiat on-ramp next year, APAC director John O’Loghlen said at last week’s India Blockchain Week.

The move follows a prolonged standoff triggered in 2022, when Coinbase launched in India with support for the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) but withdrew the feature within days after the network operator publicly declined to acknowledge the exchange.

Coinbase later halted services entirely, off-boarded millions of Indian users and shuttered local access while reassessing regulatory exposure.

O’Loghlen said the firm opted for a “clean slate” approach and began engaging directly with the Financial Intelligence Unit, the agency responsible for monitoring digital-asset transactions. Coinbase completed FIU registration earlier this year and began admitting users through an early-access program in October.

The app is now open broadly, though trading remains limited to crypto pairs until fiat rails return.

India remains one of the toughest major markets for exchanges to operate in due to a 30% flat tax on crypto gains, a prohibition on loss offsets and a 1% transaction levy that suppresses trading volumes.

Despite regulatory uncertainty, Coinbase continues to invest in the country. Its venture arm recently increased its stake in local exchange CoinDCX at a $2.45 billion valuation, and the company plans to expand its 500-plus India workforce across both domestic and global product lines.