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- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange had been informally pressured by the RBI to withdraw its UPI option in India
- Armstrong takes a very optimistic stance, despite Coinbase’s reported net loss of $430 million in the first quarter
Last month, Coinbase introduced UPI payments for Indian crypto users, but before the product could even launch, it was withdrawn as an option, as the crypto exchange did not give users an explanation for the rollback. UPI is a widely used payment infrastructure built by a network of banks.
The decision to withdraw the offer was preceded by a warning from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI. organization deny, Knowledge of “some crypto exchange” to have the UPI payments used.
Informal pressure of the RBI
Regarding the UPI drama, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, on Tuesday, in a conference call, sent a statement in which he said that the stock exchange “I have experienced informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India, which is something like the treasury equivalent there“.
Armstrong announced that although cryptocurrencies are not illegal in India, there is resistance from the country’s central bank. This gentle pressure has made it difficult to set up payments through UPI.
He added that the crypto exchange has agreed to work with the RBI to find a solution that would allow it to set up additional payment options.
A loss of $ 430 million, but Armstrong is still optimistic
Still post Coinbase on Tuesday released its quarterly report, in which it revealed a net loss of $ 430 million in the first quarter, which decreased to $ 1.17 billion in revenue. This represented a drop of about 27% compared to the figures for the first quarter of 2021. Sales in the first quarter were also less than half of the $ 2.5 billion in sales in the fourth quarter of last year.
In addition, the number of monthly active users reached 11.4 million, which is a decrease of 19% compared to the figures of the previous quarter. This contributes to the current bearish environment, but the CEO of Coinbase insists that he remains unimpressed.
Armstrong justified his conviction with the profits during the conference call and told investors that bear phases are usually often very productive for Coinbase, which is why he has never been so optimistic about his company.
“There are so many customers who are making their way to us, so we have our hands full to keep everything running. Therefore, downtime is often a welcome change, as we can then focus on developing the next layer of innovation, which will benefit us in the next cycle.“
The Coinbase executive also referred to a report that the exchange published last year, in which the company stressed that it wanted to continue with crypto adoption despite the market volatility.
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