Indian regulators never really jumped on the crypto bandwagon, and were anti-crypto for quite a significant amount of time. That being said, back in February, the Indian Supreme Court ordered that a crypto policy must be drawn up within 4 weeks, but by April the Supreme Court had already delayed it twice. Now, Indian regulators are taking up an anti-crypto stance once more, with a view to ban it outright. The move has forced numerous exchanges to shut down in the country and Koinex is the latest victim of the anti-crypto movement.
The End of an Era
Koinex was dubbed the most popular crypto exchange in India back in 2017 after it recorded $265 million in trading volume and 40,000 new users signing up in a 24-hour window. Then. As 2018 rolled around, the Royal Bank of India (RBI) hit the exchange with a ban. Koinex tried to fight the ban in the Supreme Court, but the ban remained in place. Since then, Koinex has struggled to gain any traction and has been forced to shut its doors.
India Scared of Crypto
Ever since crypto became more mainstream and broke into the media, we’ve seen the Indian authorities think very carefully about how to deal with crypto. One of the main arguments is how cryptocurrencies could impact the Rupee, and how the RBI would combat the new wealth flooding into India from crypto trading. In a bid to keep crypto wealth out of India, the RBI has urged the Indian regulators to take a firm stance against cryptos.
Exchanges Shutting Their Doors All Around
It’s not only in India where exchanges are having to shut their doors, exchanges from crypto-friendly countries are struggling too. Back in March, we saw Huobi Australia shut down due to a lack of new traders coming to the platform. Australia has 246 registered crypto exchanges in the country, meaning competition is very tough. Huobi officially blamed the move on crypto winter, but in reality, it was down to a lack of unique selling points for the exchange and its platform. Later in March, we also saw Gatecoin shut down after a two-year struggle following a hack. The exchange suffered a huge hack back in 2016 and never found its footing.
By closing its doors, Koinex has become another statistic in the Indian war against cryptos. It’s always a sad day when a crypto exchange has to shut down, but when regulators aren’t being helpful it’s often the only way forward.
