Coinbase Launches in India With Direct INR Rails

• Coinbase went live in India on June 1, 2026, with direct INR deposits and withdrawals via IMPS, alongside spot trading, perpetual futures, and local rupee order books.
• The launch follows the exchange’s FIU-IND registration and ends the peer-to-peer funding workarounds that defined retail crypto trading on global platforms in India.
• Coinbase is framing India as a long-term market, citing its CoinDCX stake, more than $1 million in Base developer funding, and India’s first-place ranking in Chainalysis’s 2025 crypto adoption index.

Coinbase launched direct INR rails in India on Monday, June 1, 2026, letting customers deposit and withdraw rupees straight from their bank accounts through the country’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). The Nasdaq-listed exchange paired the banking integration with spot trading, perpetual futures, and dedicated local rupee order books, opening a regulated on-ramp that removes the peer-to-peer workarounds long relied on by Indian retail traders.

The launch reverses a false start. Coinbase first opened to Indian users in April 2022 with support for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), then suspended the feature within days after the National Payments Corporation of India said it was unaware of any crypto exchange using the network. The company wound down its India operations in 2023 and asked users to empty their accounts. It registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) on March 11, 2025, reopened registrations for crypto-to-crypto trading in December 2025, and has now switched on full fiat support.

Coinbase India INR Rails Go Live via IMPS

John O’Loghlen, Coinbase’s Regional Managing Director for APAC, framed the move as a long-term commitment in the company’s announcement.

“With the launch of direct INR rails, we’re making Coinbase fully accessible to Indian retail traders, with the same platform trusted by institutions and traders around the world. We’re registered with FIU-IND and here for the long-term,” O’Loghlen said.

Through IMPS, a real-time interbank transfer network, customers can fund accounts in rupees and withdraw rupees back to their banks without intermediaries. Coinbase said there are no INR deposit fees and that its Coinbase Advanced taker fees stay competitive against local platforms. The exchange argued that direct bank rails cut the payment disputes, scam-linked transfers, and account freezes that can follow P2P funding through unknown counterparties.

Coinbase built local INR order books to concentrate rupee liquidity while keeping access to its global exchange for tighter spreads. Active traders can use Coinbase Advanced, which offers APIs built to institutional standards, WebSocket order book streaming, a full range of order types, and integrated TradingView charting.

A Compliance-First Re-Entry

This time, the company leaned on regulatory standing. Coinbase said it operates under India’s FIU-IND framework for virtual digital asset service providers and complies with Indian tax rules, including the 30% levy on gains and the 1% tax deducted at source. It also pointed to its Nasdaq listing, S&P 500 membership, quarterly audited financials, cold storage, and crime insurance.

The rollout builds on earlier groundwork. Coinbase holds an investment in local exchange CoinDCX and has directed more than $1 million to Indian developers through hackathons, grants, and fellowships on its Base network. More than 4,000 builders in India have shipped on Base, and roughly 150 of those projects have grown into startups.

India sits at the center of that strategy. Chainalysis ranked the country first in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index, ahead of the United States. Research firm IMARC valued India’s crypto market at $3.04 billion in 2025 and projected it could reach $14.21 billion by 2034.

The on-ramp is reaching users in stages. Some verified customers said they finished onboarding yet still could not see deposit or buy options on launch day, and Coinbase replied that the update was rolling out gradually. Akshay Chugh, Coinbase’s India product lead, said the rails are rolling out gradually to all users and called India one of the company’s most important markets globally.

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by the Editorial Team.

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