Bitgate, Alchemy Pay partners to allow crypto purchases via Indian Rupee, UPI

BitGet, a Seychelles-based crypto exchange, has decided to let Indian users buy cryptocurrencies using fiat rupees. The exchange has partnered with Web3 payment solutions platform Alchemy Pay to facilitate crypto purchases through Rupee currency. The collaboration aims to make crypto purchasing on international exchanges more accessible in India, as well as diversify the number of platforms for citizens to do so.

According to Announcement Published on Bitgate’s site, its collaboration with Alchemy Pay will open up crypto purchases via IMPS bank transfers as well as Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

As part of this partnership, Alchemy Pay will provide its on-ramp services on Bitgate’s trading platform. The service lets users use fiat services like Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, and Google Pay to buy crypto assets. As part of its services, Alchemy also lets crypto holders sell their crypto holdings and send the funds back to their back accounts in the form of fiat currencies.

This is an interesting development because the last time an exchange offered Indians to buy crypto assets through UPI, it did not go down well with the Indian authorities.

In April 2022, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had announced the feature for Indian users visiting the exchange. However, NPCI’s response to the development dampened company sentiment. At the time, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said it had not authorized Coinbase to use the UPI system to allow crypto purchases. The exchange had to withdraw its announcement and disable the UPI-based asset purchase feature.

At present, NPCI has not responded to Bitget’s feature allowing crypto purchases for Indians through UPI.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that Bitget has shown its interest in India. In November 2023, Bitgate decided to invest $10 million (about Rs 83 crore) over a five-year period in India, aiming to boost firms operating in the crypto space. In April last year, Bitget launched a self-funded pool of $100 million (about Rs 819 crore) to help promising Web3 projects emerging from Asia.

India tops the index of 154 countries that show the most promise in crypto adoption, according to a 2023 Chainalysis report. Nigeria, Vietnam, US and Ukraine ranked second, third and fourth respectively after India in the index.