Amidst confusion and uncertainty prevailing in India, Unocoin launches the first cryptocurrency ATM in the country.
India Gets Its First Crypto ATM
Unocoin, the oldest cryptocurrency exchange of India, launched the country’s first cryptocurrency ATM earlier on Sunday. The ATM was launched in the southern city of Bengaluru, and the company plans to expand the network by adding 29 more in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The development was shared by the firm on its official website.
The post states:
We at Unocoin have always believed in serving our customers with the best of their interest and with the most secure services. Since December 2013, our team has been serving the Indian bitcoin and blockchain community by continuously innovating and making ways for a smoother and wider experience.
Relief Within the Indian Community
This move from the company comes in the background of uncertainty within the Indian cryptocurrency community of investors and traders due to the central bank’s April circular mandating banks to sever ties with cryptocurrency exchanges.
Banks were given a buffer period of three months to wind up their relationships with the exchanges. As a result, most centralized exchanges had to halt deposits and withdrawals of the Indian rupee (INR), the country’s fiat currency.
Trading volumes plunged by 90%. While the exchanges have challenged the notification in the country’s apex court, the massive backlog of cases has seen the hearing date getting rescheduled since September 11th.
While many exchanges like Koinex and WazirX launched peer-to-peer platforms to keep the show running, others like Zebpay, one of the leading Indian players, shut down their operations.
The post adds:
Due to the RBI’s recent notification on ‘Prohibition on Dealing in Virtual Currencies,’ our banking relationships were disrupted some time ago. Since then, we were then in the process of deploying new mechanisms for INR deposits and withdrawals. This was not a small undertaking and it took us some time to deploy new solutions, and now we are here with the implementation of ATM.
How Does the ATM Work?
Customers of Unocoin and Unodax (the crypto-to-crypto platform of the firm) will be able to deposit and withdraw INR from the ATM. The news update explains, “Users are subject to some limits on deposit and withdrawals per transaction and per day subject to cash handling restrictions in India. The minimum amount for deposit and withdraw is 1000 INR and must be in multiples of 500 INR.”
The post further explains the procedure that customers need to follow to deposit and withdraw INR and execute their trades.
While using these ATMs is a little inconvenient (requires customers to visit the machines, and there are transaction and daily limits), it does bring relief to the investors who, since July, have not been able to liquidate their assets due to the disruption. P2P platforms, due to their complex process, have not been able to replace the void caused by the halt in the deposits and withdrawals on centralized exchanges.
Do you think deploying crypto ATMs will help the Indian cryptocurrency community? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of YouTube/@Unocoin Cryptoassets & Blockchain Company, Unocoin, and Shutterstock.