With ‘no ban’ on crypto, banks open doors for crypto exchanges; Kotak ties up with WazirX

New Delhi: Amid growing perception that crypto trading will be regulated and not banned in the country, the high-streets banks are warming up to the crypto exchanges to tap the growing community of crypto users.

Kota Mahindra Bank has become the first major bank to start a business with WazirX, one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges. WazirX has opened its account with the private lender Kotak Mahindra. Sources privy to the matter say that the tie-up is yet to operationalise as KY, paperwork & other testings are in the works.

The coming together of banking giant and crypto exchange will go a long way in building confidence among investors as this will facilitate financial transactions via bank account. Crypto users will be able to pay & receive money via their bank account and will thus offset for the apprehensions of money ‘getting lost’ in transactions via crypto exchanges.

Tie-up will enable money transfer via bank account

The bank-exchange tie-up comes after a gap of almost one year. Earlier, WazirX had tied up with ICICI bank but after feelers from Reserve Bank hinted at the impending ban on digital currency, its businesses were shifted to MobiKwik, a digital wallet and payment services company.

Not just SBI, other banking giants including HDFC, SBI & Axis Bank also restricted payments involving crypto platforms and vendors. The banks also deactivated net banking gateway for merchants, thus preventing them from buying or selling digital currencies using its platform.

While the highly looked forward to Cryptocurrency Bill by the Government is yet to be out, investors and crypto exchanges are of the view that the latter could be regulated, instead of an earlier notion of getting banned.

Reports suggest that Kotak is also in talks of with other crypto exchanges like Zebay to open their accounts with the bank.