At a glance
- Coinbase India said on X at 03:30 UTC (09:00 IST) on Saturday that INR withdrawals are “temporarily unavailable due to an outage at our banking partner”, which it says is affecting “the bank’s payouts for all of its clients, not just Coinbase”.
- The incident has run since 9 Nov, according to Coinbase’s status page. Deposits, including UPI, and bank-account linking still work. No restart date has been given.
Coinbase India’s post says customers’ funds are safe and that the company is working with the bank “around the clock” to restore withdrawals. It has not named the bank.
What the status page shows
Coinbase’s status page opened an incident called “Bank Payments Unavailable – INR (India)” at 11:07 UTC (16:37 IST) on 9 Nov. It said customers in India might be unable to complete INR withdrawals, link new bank accounts or use UPI, or might see deposits delayed.
At 03:49 UTC (09:19 IST) on 10 Nov, it narrowed the problem to INR withdrawals. Deposits, UPI and bank linking were working normally, it said.
It also asked customers not to start new withdrawals, because any started during the outage “may fail or remain pending until the issue is resolved”.
The incident was still open when we checked at about 15:00 UTC. On 12 and 13 Nov, Coinbase’s India and support accounts answered users’ complaints with the same line: withdrawals were delayed by a technical issue at a banking partner.
What it means for users
A rupee withdrawal sells crypto for INR and sends the money to a linked bank account. Until it is fixed, users can keep funds on the exchange, trade, or deposit more, but cannot cash out to their bank.
Business Today notes that Coinbase launched direct INR deposits and withdrawals in India in June, through the IMPS payment network.
crypto.news reports that Coinbase’s India help page says a customer who links a bank account permanently loses the option to send crypto to other wallets. We could not confirm that wording ourselves. If it is accurate, it would leave users without an alternative route out while the outage lasts.
What we don’t know
Coinbase has not said which bank is affected, why its payouts are down, or when withdrawals will resume. It has not said how many users are waiting on pending withdrawals.
We have not found a statement from the bank. Separately, Unocoin put its loss at about $200,000 and said its own backup keys were compromised after a security breach, which is unrelated to a bank outage.
Why it matters: an exchange that cannot pay out in rupees leaves users holding crypto they may have wanted to sell. Check Coinbase’s status page and its India account for updates, and do not start new INR withdrawals while the incident is open.
Next, watch for the incident to be marked resolved and for Coinbase to name a timeline.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.