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Bybit suspends services in India amid regulatory blowback

Policy & Regulation·January 13, 2025, 3:20 AM

It’s been a tough couple of months for global crypto exchange, Bybit. Having had to leave the Malaysian market due to regulatory issues, the firm is now being forced to shutter its service in India for similar reasons.

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Withdrawing services on January 12

The exchange announced its withdrawal from the Indian market via a statement published to its website on Jan. 10. The service for Indian residents has been ceased from 08:00 UTC on Sunday, Jan. 12. 

 

Account opening and crypto trading has been disabled. Furthermore, the ability to place market orders through other exchange products offered by the company has also been disabled. The ability for customers to withdraw fiat currency and digital assets remains in place.

 

Achieving full compliance

While the company is leaving the market, it has stated that its services are temporarily suspended in India. It cited a need to “operate in full compliance” as the firm’s primary objective relative to the Indian market. Elaborating on this, it stated:

”We have taken this measure while we continue to work closely with the regulator to finalize our registration as a Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider in India, which we expect to secure in the coming weeks.”

 

Malaysian market issue

The situation mirrors a similar set of circumstances that Bybit finds itself in relative to the Malaysian market. On Dec. 27, the Malaysian Securities Commission published a statement outlining details of an enforcement action it had taken against Bybit and the firm’s CEO, Ben Zhou. 

 

In that instance, Bybit was directed to disable its service offering within the Malaysian market. The company indicated that it would return to the market once it had secured the necessary licensing.

 

India hasn’t proven to be the most crypto-friendly jurisdiction to date. Indian crypto influencer R.K. Gupta took to the X social media platform, claiming that the government was at fault for Bybit having to withdraw from the Indian market. He stated:

 

“Our country’s flawed policies are ruining crypto, while others aim for reserve currency status. Govt targeting exchanges, and now Bybit might stop services in India.”

 

In December 2023, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) took action to prevent unregistered overseas exchanges from operating within the Indian market. It issued compliance show-cause notices to nine exchanges at the time. Shortly afterwards, Apple India blocked access to these exchanges on the Indian Apple App Store. 

 

While Bybit wasn’t amongst them, it is now being brought into line by Indian regulators. Back in September, it emerged that the FIU was considering requests to allow four offshore cryptocurrency exchanges to resume activity within the Indian market. Having been deemed to have come into compliance, Binance and KuCoin resumed activities in India in August 2024.

 

Aside from Malaysia and India, Bybit has also encountered regulatory difficulties in Europe. Last August, it left the French market due to regulatory problems. In May 2022, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French financial markets authority, blacklisted Bybit, warning investors that it wasn’t a registered digital asset service provider. 

 

As part of that market withdrawal, Bybit collaborated with partner Coinhouse, a regulated French crypto-asset platform. Accounts holding assets above the value of 10 USDC were transferred to Coinhouse.

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