Betting big on the future of crypto and Web3 in India, international crypto asset exchange Coinbase has now allowed Indian users to buy their favourite tokens with Indian rupee (INR) on its app. Coinbase made this announcement at an event in Bengaluru on Thursday (April 7, 2022).

Coinbase officials said at the event that customers would be able to buy crypto with Indian rupee as it is adding support for popular UPI payment instrument. As many as 157 crypto assets will be available to buyers on Coinbase app on day 1. The company, however, didn’t share the name of the banks with which it has partnered to make use of the UPI feature.

Most of the banks currently do not allow Indian customers to use their accounts to buy crypto through UPI. Reacting to a query on how Coinbase is going to work around this, Surojit Chatterjee, Chief Product Officer at Coinbase said they are in talks with various banking partners in India to make it easy to buy crypto by paying in INR. He also said that Coinbase will follow all legal and regulatory norms while enabling users to buy crypto in an easy and trustworthy way.

Meanwhile, UPI governing body National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has denied being aware of any crypto exchange using UPI in India.

“With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of Cryptocurrencies using UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI,” NPCI said in a statement hours after Coinbase’s announcement.

Long-term game

Coinbase has allowed crypto buying with INR in India at a time when there are fears that the proposed 1% TDS will eventually kill crypto trading in the country. The Government has also imposed a flat 30% tax on income from crypto and other virtual digital assets in India. This is likely to further keep new investors away from crypto.

However, Coinbase officials said they are in India for a long-term, with 10-20 years time horizon.

“We have just started our experiment. Our commitment is long-term. It is going to be a long journey. We want to be humble, respectful and bring the technology in a trustworthy way,” Surojit Chatterjee, Chief Product Officer at Coinbase said.

Coinbase had been experimenting with UPI rollout for a few users on its platform for some time.

While addressing the event, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the company’s ambitious plans to hire 1000 employees in India this year. Coinbase is offering “remote-first” jobs where visiting office for work will always be optional for the employees

Coinbase has 300 full-time employees in India at present, with around 30-35% of them based in Bengaluru.

(The article has been updated with NPCI’s statement)