The National Payments Corporation of India said on Thursday that they had no idea that people were using the Unified Payments Interface to exchange cryptocurrencies. Recently, there have been many reports and studies indicating that people were using their UPI accounts to purchase many cryptocurrencies. The NPCI came out and had to clarify to the public that they were unaware of these kinds of activities and transactions.
The National Payments Corporation of India is a government run organization that is a special wing that works under the Reserve Bank of India. It however functions and answers to the Ministry of Finance. The organization has introduced various schemes such as the Aadhar Enabled Payments System, the Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS), helped in making the QR code ubiquitous in India and has now made the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) one of the most common modes of transactions in the country. One of the biggest accomplishments of the organization is their work of making the banks all work together to create a method of payment that can be done from the comfort of the customer’s smartphones.
UPI based transactions exceeded the $1 trillion USD mark for the 2021-22 fiscal year which is a great accomplishment for the organization and Indian banks and it proved that these types of easy online payments are the future of the Indian economy.
The entire UPI, crypto debacle arose when Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, announced that they will be expanding their operations to India and added a feature where you can use your UPI id to link your crypto accounts and use the same to purchase various currencies. The CEO of the firm, Brian Armstrong spoke about the potential growth not only the company would have but even cryptocurrencies as a whole once India gets into purchasing and trading them. And with enabling UPI transactions, the crypto world is set to boom in the near future.
The crypto platform has already shelled out $150 million USD, in their expansion to the Indian economy. In just under a year, they have hired 300 employees and look to increase that number. This also shows the employment opportunities that the world of crypto could bring once it comes to India.
India is a bit late to the crypto game owing to the fact that the purchase and sale of the currency was heavily restricted by the Indian government. But in the recent union budget, Nirmala Sitharaman announced that it will now be legalised. All though there is a 30% tax slapped on them, the foundation of growth has been set.
