Coinbase has resumed user onboarding in India after more than two years, marking its first return to a market it abruptly left in 2023 following regulatory friction over payment rails.
The exchange is once 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 sparked in 2022, when Coinbase launched in India with support for the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), but pulled the feature days after the network operator publicly refused to recognize the exchange.
Coinbase then completely discontinued its services, locked out millions of Indian users, and shut down local access while reassessing regulatory exposure.
O’Loghlen said the company 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 widely open, although trading remains limited to cryptocurrency pairs until fiat rails return.
India remains one of the most difficult major exchange markets to operate due to a flat 30% tax on crypto gains, a loss offset ban, and a 1% trading levy that suppresses trading volumes.
Despite regulatory uncertainty, Coinbase continues to invest in the country. Its venture capital arm recently increased its stake in local exchange CoinDCX at a valuation of $2.45 billion, and the company plans to expand its more than 500 Indian employees across domestic and global product lines.
