Investing in bitcoins? How India's crypto players are fighting to survive

A 3-part series looks at how the cryptocurrency players are dealing with the all-round clampdown on a system that's in no-man's land

“If the government can ban its own currency, it can, of course, ban any other currency, which it doesn’t have control over,” Sandeep Goenka, co-founder of Zebpay, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in India, said at a recent panel discussion on virtual currency such as bitcoins. Indeed, the cryptocurrency universe in the country is staring at uncertainty like never before, as banks and payment gateway partners are increasingly withdrawing support.

While Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank have been closing accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges for quite some time now, there are others, including Bandhan Bank and RBL Bank,