India’s leading banks suspended some accounts of major Bitcoin exchanges in India. According to the sources, the reason of this move is suspicious transactions from exchanges side.
Banks who suspend bitcoin transaction accounts are State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank. The accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges/platforms in the country such as Zebpay, Unocoin, CoinSecure, BtcxIndia, among others are cancelled.
These banks have also capped cash withdrawals for the few accounts which are operational, , the Economic Times reported citing multiple sources.
Also no bitcoin exchanges reply on Pixr8’s mail during the time of publishing the news. Queries sent to the banks taking the action also did not elicit any response.
Eight accounts have likely been suspended immediately after the banks found the funds were utilised for something which it was not intended for.
Although India hasn’t banned Bitcoins, the cryptocurrency is largely unregulated. The total revenue of the top 10 exchanges in India could be about Rs 40,000 crore, according to tax officials scrutinising these companies.