, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange platform, has announced its decision to cease operations in the country, citing operational difficulties. The platform published a on its Medium account at the end of March 2019, blaming the Reserve Bank of India () ban on exchanges maintaining accounts with Indian commercial banks as the reason for its decision.
Coindelta Shutters Operations in India
According to the blog post, Coindelta said it had endured a tumultuous six months, trying to provide its services while navigating difficult operating conditions.
An excerpt from the post reads:
“Running the exchange is very expensive in such [an] unfavorable environment. We have been operating at a minimal trade fee, bearing all the costs ourselves ensuring that your trading experience remains unaffected in the current unregulated environment.”
Coindelta founder, Shubham Yadav went on to state that the platform reached a point where it was no longer economically viable to continue its operations. The decision came exactly 18 months after the platform began its operations in the country.
Withdrawal Fees Cause Uproar
As part of the decision, Yadav said Coindelta had suspended all trading activities with immediate effect. However, the platform will still offer its wallet services for 30 days within which users can withdraw their funds.
The statement also revealed that all cryptocurrency withdrawals from Coindelta would attract a fee. Some customers of the platform have taken to Twitter to complain about the hefty fees being charged.
Posted screenshots from some customers show fees as high as 200 rupees (about $2.89). Crypto Kanoon, an Indian platform that monitors regulatory developments in the country’s cryptocurrency space also condemned the move by Coindelta to charge high fees for a forced withdrawal.
Seemingly taking advantage of the situation, rival exchange platform, WazirX published a tweet offering a full refund of Coindelta withdrawal fees. All users have to do is move their funds from Coindelta to WazirX.
Delays Continue to Trail Supreme Court Decision on RBI Ban
Coindelta isn’t the first platform to shutter its service in India following the RBI ban. As previously by BTCManager, Zebpay shut down its operations in the country back in September 2018 due to similar reasons. The company eventually announced a to Malta the following month.
With the still in effect, banks cannot facilitate any type of cryptocurrency transactions. Thus, exchanges are left without crucial banking support thus rendering deposit and withdrawal services difficult.
Meanwhile, the case before the challenging the ban remains unresolved. The court earlier gave the government to respond but has adjourned the case until the middle of July 2019. Stakeholders within the country continue to clamor for an overturn of the ban with the hashtag #IndiaWantsCrypto garnering thousands of tweets.
Published at Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:00:57 +0000