Bangalore, June 20 Following the government crackdown on unified payments interface (UPI) deposits crypto investors have been struggling to invest as peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions come with a multitude of problems such as transaction delay, lack of support from help desk among others.
Most users on exchanges preferred to transact through UPI or Mobikwik wallet. But, recently, most exchanges have suspended taking rupee deposits via UPI after National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) clarified that it was not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI. Mobikwik wallet too withdrew support for crypto transactions in India. This leaves the investors with either bank transfer or P2P option, However, the payment gateways of major banks are not supported on the exchanges.
P2P trading is a type of cryptocurrency exchange method that allows traders to trade directly with one another without the need for a centralized third party to facilitate the transactions.
Shubam Tuteja, a crypto investor and trader, said, “whenever there is a delay in receiving the amount to the account, one has no option but to contact the person who is heading the transfer through the number they have provided on the platform, which at times is not available or will take a lot of time.” The other problem with P2P is that only a limited number of banks allow such transactions, he added.
Another user Faizan Munshi complains about the process being time consuming. “The P2P route is slow in terms of matching ask price, a transaction would take time and given the crypto market, anything can happen in that duration of time - the price of the coin could go way lower or way higher,” he said.
Users who transact in smaller amounts, find the P2P incompatible. “I left using an exchange when it stopped the UPI method because the minimum transaction for P2P is $14 and I would do deposits of hardly $3-4,” said Akshay Revenkar.
Mohnish Wadhwa, CEO of a business consultant firm Capdeck Advisors explained that the only reason why exchanges used UPI deposits is because they needed a reconciliation engine between the payment and the settlement and the payment aggregators had the technology to do so. “ Now that UPI deposits options have been withdrawn, the alternate way for exchanges is to develop their own protocol so that a reconciliation engine can be developed. Or else, P2P will be the only way out, but the transaction method has a time lapse, which isn’t simpler,” he added.
The Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council’s (BACC) participants including exchanges such as CoinSwitch Kuber, WazirX and CoinDCX have written to the NPCI. It has reportedly asked the UPI governing body to restore UPI services for crypto players.