India has blocked Coinbase in just 3 days! Central Bank RBI has effectively prohibited Coinbase from operating in the country by blocking UPI access

Last week, Coinbase held an event where their CEO announced launch of fiat trading services in India using the UPI payment rails, along with other announcements of hiring 1000 employees, funding other startups etc.

Immediately after the event, a branch of the central bank RBI issued a strange statement:

They are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI

As a result, it seems Coinbase has wound up its operations within just 3 days.

https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/coinbase-halts-upi-payments-for-crypto-within-three-days-of-india-launch-122041100027_1.html

Crypto continues to be discriminated, but you can use UPI on a host of gambling apps where people are way more likely to lose all of their money. The odds of winning in a gambling app is terribly low, even if it is disguised as fantasy sports. Some utterly shitty games like Rummy are supported on UPI.. but investing in crypto is blocked lol.

Such decisions show that UPI can never be a real global settlement layer. If legit businesses like Coinbase can be kicked off at will, it is not a neutral settlement layer.

RBI is a strong opponent of crypto and has hit out multiple times against crypto with latest attacks referencing outdated claims from 2013.