Why India's Crypto Lobby Won't Legally Challenge Central Bank's Curbs On UPI

Internet & Mobile Association of India (IMAI), a body representing the interests of Indian crypto investors, said that it has no plans to file a legal challenge against the Indian central bank after it restricted the use of UPI for crypto exchanges.

What Happened: Earlier, Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEO Brian Armstrong had called India's central bank action of "shadow banning" the use of UPI by cryptocurrency exchanges a violation of India's top court ruling.

An IMAI spokesperson told CoinDesk, "We have no plans to file a contempt of court challenge," while responding to a query about Armstrong's idea of filing a legal move against the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Tough questions, and good questions, for NPCI and RBI in India. Is their "shadow ban" a violation of the supreme court ruling?https://t.co/59tbDH1zLS

— Brian Armstrong - barmstrong.eth (@brian_armstrong) April 25, 2022

This came after Coinbase had to suspend the option to buy cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD, Dogecoin DOGE/USD, and Ethereum ETH/USD as it blamed India's central bank for putting "informal pressure."

Armstrong, in the company's quarterly call, said, "India is a unique market in the sense that the Supreme Court has ruled that they can't ban crypto, but there are elements in the government there, including at the Reserve Bank of India, who don't seem to be as positive on it. And so it's been called a 'shadow ban.' Basically, they're applying soft pressure behind the scenes to try to disable some of these payments, which might be going through UPI."

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Coinbase shares closed 9.47% higher at $67.17 on Wednesday.

In cryptos, Bitcoin was down 0.49% at $29,586.10 in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum and Dogecoin lost 3.27% and 2.88%, respectively.