What happened
Coinbase switched its India app back on Monday morning local time and is once again accepting Indian residents as full retail customers, per 99Bitcoins, which first reported the relaunch. Users can fund accounts directly in rupees and trade a slate of major tokens, a setup the firm has not offered in India since April 2022, when its first launch was throttled within 72 hours after the National Payments Corporation of India publicly disavowed UPI support.
Coinbase scaled back further through 2023, eventually telling existing Indian users to withdraw funds. The new build routes deposits through an unnamed banking partner rather than UPI, according to the 99Bitcoins report. Coinbase has not published a press release on its investor relations page as of Monday morning, and chief executive Brian Armstrong has not commented publicly on the timing.
Why it matters
India is the single largest retail crypto market on the planet by user count, with Chainalysis ranking it first in its Global Crypto Adoption Index for three consecutive years through 2025. Coinbase walked away from that base in 2022 and watched WazirX, CoinDCX, Mudrex and a long tail of offshore venues absorb it. Coming back with a direct INR rail, rather than the stablecoin-only experience most foreign exchanges offer Indian users, is the most aggressive reentry move a US-listed exchange has made into the country since the 2022 tax regime took effect.
The headline reads bullish for Coinbase's international revenue mix. The flow picture is harder. India's 1% TDS on every trade is still in force, and that tax has cut domestic spot volumes by roughly 90% since its 2022 introduction, per a 2024 study from the Esya Centre.
