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 long-running standoff sparked 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 refused to recognize the exchange.
Coinbase later halted services entirely, leaving millions of Indian users and shutting down local access while it reassessed regulatory exposure.
O’Loghlen said the firm took 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 enrolling users through an early access program in October.
The app is now wide open, although 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 ban on loss compensation and a 1% transaction fee that suppresses trading volume.
Despite regulatory uncertainty, Coinbase continues to invest in the country. Its venture arm recently raised its stake in local exchange CoinDCX at a valuation of $2.45 billion, and the company plans to expand its 500-plus Indian workforce across both domestic and global product lines.
