The Indian cryptocurrency exchange Coindelta ceases its services in light of the unfavorable operating climate for cryptocurrencies in the country. The development was announced in an official blog post on March 30.
Eighteen months after its first launch, Coindelta informed users that severe restrictions on banking services for companies related to cryptocurrencies in India led to an increase in its operating costs and, therefore, it was not profitable to continue operations. Post notes:
“It has been very difficult for us to manage the Coindelta exchange in the last 6 months. The restriction of bank accounts by RBI made us disabled to provide uninterrupted deposit and withdrawal services. There was no significant progress in the Supreme Court case, which makes forecasting difficult when we see the ruling. ”
In April 2018, the Central Bank of India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), banned all domestic banks from providing services to cryptographic enterprises. The protracted regulatory uncertainty led to the fact that even individuals reportedly faced closure of bank accounts, since some institutions seemed to have widely extrapolated the ban on crypto banking to individual traders.
In its announcement, Coindelta stated that all cryptocurrency markets on its platforms were suspended at 2:00 pm (time zone unknown) on March 30.
All outstanding orders were reportedly canceled, and user funds were returned to their wallets. The exchange said it would continue to provide the services of the wallet until April 29, 2019, after which it asks users to request withdrawals via their support page or via email.
In particular, Coindelta charges a fixed fee for all withdrawals, as stated in the application. Several users responded to Coindelta on Twitter, arguing that the commission is too high and makes finding small amounts of cryptocurrencies impossible.
In an attempt to quell the anger of the community and attract business from former clients of its now closed counterpart, rival Indian crypto-exchange WazirX notified users on March 30 that it would refund their fee for withdrawing funds from Coindelta if they decide to transfer their deposits to their platform.
As previously reported, the state and future of cryptocurrency in India remains highly controversial. After the controversial RBI ban came into force last July, both public and industry petitions appealed to the courts on the grounds that this decision was unconstitutional.
On March 30, the fourth of a series of rallies of blokchain supporters was organized in Bangalore to protest the continuing uncertainty, as the Supreme Court is considering the expected final decision to ban RBI.
