Coinbase enables IMPS rupee rails in India

Coinbase enabled Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) rupee deposits and withdrawals in India after registering with the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the company wrote in a blog post published Sunday. The change lets Indian customers move funds directly between bank accounts and Coinbase accounts.

IMPS is an instant bank-to-bank payments network used across Indian banks. With IMPS rails live, users can fund accounts in Indian rupees, withdraw to local bank accounts and trade using INR order books on Coinbase’s platform. The exchange offers spot trading, perpetual futures and its Advanced Trade interface through a single account for Indian customers.

Coinbase registered with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit in March 2025, a step the company described as enabling it to offer crypto trading services under the country’s anti-money-laundering framework. The registration provides a formal compliance footing for operations in India.

The firm previously accepted rupee deposits via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for a short period in 2022 but suspended that channel days after launch after payments authorities signaled caution and some partners stopped enabling UPI access for crypto transactions.

Coinbase said it has built local INR order books to concentrate domestic liquidity and paired those with its global exchange infrastructure, allowing customers to access local and international markets from the same account.

India’s crypto market includes domestic competitors such as CoinDCX, CoinSwitch, ZebPay and WazirX. Global exchanges including Binance and KuCoin have generally relied on crypto-only or peer-to-peer rupee access rather than direct bank rails; Coinbase’s use of IMPS places it among exchanges offering direct bank-to-crypto transfers in India.

Regulatory and tax rules in India affect market participation. The government applies a 30% tax on many digital-asset gains and requires a 1% tax deducted at source on certain transactions. Chainalysis ranked India first in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index based on retail on-chain activity, centralized exchange use, decentralized finance engagement and transaction volumes.

Coinbase’s registration with the Financial Intelligence Unit addresses compliance requirements under India’s AML rules and removes a regulatory barrier to offering trading services. The addition of IMPS rails follows the company’s broader effort to expand operations in a market with high retail activity and established local platforms.