ZEBPAY STOPS DEPOSITS AND WITHDRAWALS – In a major fallout of the RBI’s April-5 circular, which banned banks from providing financial services to crypto exchanges operating in India, Zebpay, the country’s biggest digital exchange for trading in Bitcoin and virtual currencies, on Wednesday said it has disabled the rupee deposit and withdrawal options on its mobile app.
The latest announcement comes after the company recently urged its customers to withdraw money, saying that “if Zebpay bank accounts are disrupted (after July-5 deadline), rupee deposits and withdrawals will become impossible.”
ZEBPAY STOPS DEPOSITS AND WITHDRAWALS
You can no longer deposit or withdraw balance from Zebpay App anymore after 4th July 2018. On 4th July 2018, popular Indian Bitcoin Exchange Zebpay has stopped deposits and withdrawals for their app, in light of the recent Reserve Bank of India circular: DBR. No. BP.BC.104/08.13.102/2017–18 dated April 6, 2018.
In this circular, RBI announced that dealing with virtual currencies is a potential risk and RBI shall not deal in virtual currencies or provide services to any person or entity dealing with virtual currencies (including Bitcoins).
It also gave a 3-month time frame to the banks to exit their relationship with these entities.
Zebpay is one of the most popular Bitcoin exchanges among Indian users. Since the huge surge of Bitcoins in 2017, people had been using Zebpay for holding and trading bitcoins and earn money from bitcoins.
From the past few weeks Zebpay was notifying its users about a potential stop in deposits and withdrawals, that a time may come in the future when users cannot deposit or withdraw bitcoin balances to their bank account via Zebpay.
So, it was obvious that this was about to happen. Zebpay tried their best
to notify their users about this beforehand.
And now that the 3 month period is passed, Zebpay has no other way out than to suspend all deposits and withdrawal activities.
Today, Zebpay announced on their blog that they have disabled the rupee deposit and withdrawals section on their app in accordance with the RBI mandate.
So that means if you haven’t withdrawn your Zebpay balance yet, you can’t do it anymore.
The time is over.
Please don’t blame Zebpay for it. They had nothing to do about it. It is a RBI guideline which every bank needs to follow.
And Zebpay had tried their best to counter it from their end. They had approached to the Supreme Court of India regarding this issue, and that case is in process. Its evident that such a case will take some time to get resolved, and till then, there’s no way Zebpay can enable deposits and withdrawals.
What has changed?
Only Rupee Deposits and Withdrawals are Disabled. All the rest of the features are still enabled.
Remember, the RBI guidelines are for the banks to end business with entities like Zebpay. The features inside Zebpay app are still intact and outside the regulations of RBI.
That means the following are functional:
- You can still Buy Bitcoins and other cryptos with your existing Zebpay Wallet Balance, if you have any left, but you cannot add any more Wallet Balance.
- You can still Sell Bitcoins and other cryptos and get Zebpay Wallet Balance, but you cannot withdraw it to Bank.
- You can still Send and Receive Bitcoins to and from anyone. So, that means you can still pay with Bitcoins to avail services that accept bitcoins.
- You can still trade your Bitcoins with other cryptocurrencies inside Zebpay app.
- Your cryptocurrency wallet addresses are still functional.
Has India Banned Cryptocurrencies?
Technically speaking, nope. India hasn’t banned cryptocurrencies.
But it is more of a diplomatic move to cut of the banks from dealing with the organizations involved with cryptocurrencies.
The end result is obviously stopping cryptocurrency dealing in India.
But, having said that, you are free to own and use cryptocurrencies. Nobody is gonna charge you for that.
So, that means all your existing crypto holdings are safe, more or less, if you know how and where to use it.
Where to store cryptocurrencies?
You can safely keep your cryptos on International Wallets and Exchanges such as Binance, Freewallet, coinbase, Poloniex or Bittrex. There are a lot of them available.
As they are headquartered outside India, you won’t have any risk of losing them.
But, as a more secure option, you should consider creating Paper Wallets and store your cryptos there.
From these platforms you can buy, sell and hold cryptos as well as send and receive cryptos. Its good to keep multiple options in hand.
How to withdraw cryptos into your Bank Account?
So after all these drama, is it still possible to withdraw cryptocurrencies into your bank account?
Its hard, but not impossible.
All you need to find out is someone who can take your cryptos and in return deposit money into your bank account.
Well, this is not directly in terms with RBI mandate (in other words not legal), as you are selling something you own and getting paid from it, without giving any tax to the Govt.
But, wasn’t cryptocurrencies itself designed to escape the govt. imposed taxes?
Well, our govt. surely doesn’t want you to get involved into buying, selling or trading bitcoins.
But there is surely ways to get your cryptos cashed out.
- Fly to a country where cryptocurrency is legal, cash out your bitcoins there into a local bank of that country and then transfer it to your bank.
- Ask you friend who is living in a country where cryptocurrency is legal, and cash it out via your friend.
- Sell your cryptos to someone who is living outside your country. As you are just transferring your cryptos from your crypto wallet (and not your bank account), there is no way the legal authorities of India can detect it. Take payment from that person via PayPal or something like that. PayPal will obviously deduct some tax, and it will seem you are legally receiving payments from someone.
- Websites such as Localbitcoins are like Ebay, where sellers like you and me exists. They take payments and sell bitcoins, or buy bitcoins and pay you money. Because as it happens locally, the payments are done using Indian methods, like direct Bank Transfer, PayTM etc. But depending on the future of bitcoins in India, this may not be the safest option. (However, as of now, it is available and you can deal with it).
Should I HODL more?
Depends on whether you are wanting to take the risks involved or not.
You have two choices: Either to remain or to exit.
Its your call!
As for me, I believe I can surely find out a legal way to get my Bitcoins and other cryptos cashed out in future. So, I will be doing a 60–40, where I will be cashing out 40% of my holdings soon. And the rest of the cryptos I will keep for later.
What about you?
Are you afraid to continue?
Let me know 😉
Source – https://medium.com/