Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange Zebpay Moves to Malta

The harsh cryptocurrency regulatory climate in India has clothed  to be a gift for the self-styled blockchain island of Malta as one of the cryptocurrency exchanges that recently finish off in the world’s second-most populous country has determined to maneuver operations there.

First reported by Quartz, Zebpay, one amongst the largest exchanges in India, has registered an office in Malta with a view of serving not simply citizens and residents of the island nation but also other European countries. In the Terms of Use page on its website Zebpay lists 20 countries whose residents and citizens are eligible to access its cryptocurrency exchange services. Besides Malta others include major European countries like France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and Denmark.

New Home

In Malta, Zebpay has been incorporated under the name Awlencan, according to its website:

Zebpay’s decision to pack up its Indian operations was announced last month and this was blamed on a move by the Federal Reserve Bank of India to ban the financial institutions that it regulates from giving banking services to crypto businesses.

“The curb on bank accounts has crippled our, and our customer’s, ability to transact business meaningfully,” Zebpay wrote in a statement at the time as CCN reported. “At this time, we are unable to find an affordable way to conduct the cryptocurrency exchange business.”

At the time, Zebpay, that was only launched 3 years ago, had amassed approximately 3 million users with hundreds of thousands of new users joining every month before the banking freeze by India’s central bank.

Negative Ripple effect

The banking freeze that was announced in April this year has had a negative impact not simply on cryptocurrency exchanges however also on the broader blockchain ecosystem in the world’s sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP. Late last month CCN reported that the tough regulatory position of India’s government on cryptocurrencies was causing brain drain in the country’s blockchain space. In addition, businesses and investments within the sector were exiting and heading to countries with a a lot of conducive atmosphere like Switzerland, Estonia and Thailand.

While it remains to be seen whether the cryptocurrency regulatory climate in India will change for the better in the future, hopes are fading for a reversal in the near-term given the continuing harsh stance by the government. Just this week, for example, reports emerged indicating that a government panel is likely to table a report in December proposing the holding of unregulated crypto assets to be illegalized.

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