India’s Largest Crypto Exchange Zebpay is Shutting Down all of its Operations

Zebpay, which is the largest exchange in India has decided to shut down all of its operations starting from 4 pm IST today (28th September). In a sudden announcement, Zebpay mentioned that All the unexecuted orders will be terminated, however, their wallet will still be functional even after the exchange stops.

Zebpay has taken this decision due to the difficulty to operate under the current environment in India where the banks have been restricted by the Reserve Bank of India from operating with Crypto exchanges.

Zebpay said:

The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customer’s, ability to transact business meaningfully. At this point, we are unable to find a reasonable way to conduct the cryptocurrency exchange business. As a result, we are stopping our exchange activities.

The RBI’s decision to ban banks from operating with Crypto exchanges has dried up the liquidity in many exchanges, to which they are adapting with alternatives like p2p models which Zebpay had not fully embraced.

Zebpay Tweeted:

We are stopping our exchange. At 4 PM today, we will cancel unexecuted orders & credit your coins to your Zebpay wallet. No new orders will be accepted. The Zebpay wallet will work even after the exchange stops.

Read more: https://t.co/W8ygzPIYz1 pic.twitter.com/tPWCnyu7Yu

— zebpay (@zebpay) September 28, 2018

The Singapore headquartered company supported over 20 Cryptocurrencies on their platform and claims to have over 3 Million Android and iOS app downloads.

Nishchal Shetty, Founder of another Indian Crypto exchange Wazirx Tweeted:

https://twitter.com/NischalShetty/status/1045572504037855232

So what now?

The users can move their funds to other crypto exchanges like Wazirx, Koinex, and Coindelta and continue their trading. The Zebpay wallet will still be functional even after the exchange shuts down, so the funds will not be affected to those who would like to HODL, they can hold their funds in the Zebpay wallet or move it to other wallet alternatives.

It is unclear at this point whether Zebpay will continue its operations after getting regulatory clarity. It is hard to determine how long the courts may take to pass a judgment providing clarity for Cryptocurrencies in India so it can be expected that it will take a while before Zebpay resumes its operations (If they ever will).

Blockmanity’s Take:

It is strange that Zebpay made this announcement even before the Supreme courts take on the issue which is scheduled next week. It is one of the first exchanges to operate in India, most of the people have exposure to exchanges like Zebpay.

This decision is jolting to the crypto community in India which is fighting to keep crypto ecosystem alive. A majority of Indians rely on the exchanges like Zebpay to hold their funds and trade, but in the recent times, the Crypto community in India is adapting by moving on to other alternatives like p2p exchanges.

Image Source: Zebpay

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