This is a PSA for all Indian cryptocurrency investors and traders.
The RBI (India's central bank) issued a notification regarding prohibition of virtual currencies in a notification on April 6 2018. The notification asks banks to cease service to those customers found to have transactions relating to cryptocurrencies.
Kotak Mahindra Bank has started closing accounts of customers they find in violation of this notification. Many people took to Twitter to show what banks are doing.
Majority of those who have been sent these notices we're likely to be people who had direct transactions with exchanges. However, they have started to track down people with suspicious activity, so even Peer to Peer exchanges have been compromised.
IF YOU ARE BUYING/SELLING CRYPTO VIA PEER TO PEER EXCHSNGES, PLEASE DO NOT INCLUD TERMS LIKE "BITCOIN, BTC, ETHEREUM, CRYPTO, CRYPTOCURRENCY, ETC" IN THE REMARKS SECTION OF THE TRANSACTIONS. BANKS HAVE IMPLEMENTED BOTS TO SEARCH FOR KEYWORD REGARDING DIGITAL CURRENCY IN THE REMARKS.
Kotak Mahindra and Axis Bank have ties with Ripplenet. ICICI has ties with Stellar Lumens. They want to leverage the technology for themselves to better their own business. They can suppress individuals only for so long. Hang tight and be cautious.
- AB