Major Indian Crypto Exchange Leaves Malta After Less Than A Year On ‘Blockchain Island’
One of India’s best known cryptocurrency exchanges is set to leave Malta a mere 11 months after it made the move here.
Zebpay moved to Malta last October, in what was seen as a coup for an island trying to establish itself as a global hub for blockchain businesses.
However, it recently informed its users that its Maltese company will cease exchange operations on 3rd September and that their accounts on their exchange run from Malta will be deactivated.
Zebpay used to be India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and had once accounted for half the country’s crypto traders in India, but it moved to Malta, as well as to Singapore and Australia, after the Reserve Bank of India ordered banks to stop doing business with crypto companies.
As recently as March, Zebpay published a video of its CEO Ajeet Khurana showering the Maltese government with praise for its vision to embrace blockchain companues.
“I was quite pleasantly surprised how open-minded the Maltese government is about the new emerging paradigm of blockchain, DLT and cryptocurrencies and about how much effort the Prime Minister and all his colleagues are making to attract these businesses form all over the world.
“Stereotypically, when one thinks of governments, one thinks of a group of people who move very slowly, of people who are conservative, old-minded and not ready to change. The Maltese government has proven they are extremely progressive.”
“When blockchain technologies indeed become far more widespread, the fact that Malta has taken the worlds leadership positioning on blockchain…I think it will cause them to stand apart and rise as an emerging superpower in the future of global technologies.”
Zebpay’s decision to leave Malta comes shortly after Malta-based exchange CGEX, owned by a South Korean company, announced it was terminating its services.
The company said it will terminate its services on September 18th, less than a year after it was set up.
Malta passed laws regulating blockchain companies back in November 2018, but as of last month, the MFSA had yet to approve a license for a blockchain company.
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