Indian banks suspend accounts of major crypto exchanges

The price of bitcoin fell in the first half of Sunday, amid the reports coming from India. Local banks have frozen accounts belonging to the country's leading cryptocurrency exchanges

A number of India's largest banks including the State Bank of India, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank, took some tough measures towards crypto exchanges. Some of them have suspended accounts, others imposed serious restrictions, in particular, by having capped cash withdrawals during the day.

Suspected dubios transactions are being checked at the moment. Among the exchanges that have come under investigation are platforms such as Zebpay, Unocoin, CoinSecure and BtcxIndia.

One of the reasons for taking such measures is that crypto exchanges largely operate on borrowed funds, hoping that some private investors will come soon, who in their turn are not in a hurry to invest in this risky business.

It should be noted that sanctions were not initiated by the Reserve Bank of India, as The Economic Times of India reports, referring to its source in the banking sector.

In November last year, the head of the Indian regulator Ganesh Kumar confirmed the hostile attitude of the country's authorities towards cryptocurrencies. He said that bitcoin would not be used for payments and settlemets.