Banned Crypto Exchanges in India: What Happened and Where to Trade Now

When the banned crypto exchanges in India, crypto platforms that lost their operating rights due to regulatory violations or failure to meet RBI guidelines. These exchanges were pulled offline not because crypto itself was illegal, but because they ignored rules around KYC, AML, and financial reporting. The crackdown didn’t target users—it targeted platforms that operated without transparency. In 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightened controls after reports of money laundering and unregulated fiat on-ramps. By 2023, exchanges like ZebPay, a major Indian crypto platform that temporarily suspended trading under regulatory pressure and CoinDCX, a homegrown exchange that restructured its operations to comply with new rules had to pause certain services or fully exit the fiat gateway business. The goal? To force exchanges to work within India’s financial system, not around it.

What got these exchanges in trouble? Mostly three things: no clear KYC checks, allowing anonymous deposits, and not reporting suspicious activity. The government didn’t ban Bitcoin or Ethereum—it banned the shady middlemen. Even after the Supreme Court overturned the RBI’s 2018 banking ban in 2020, compliance stayed strict. Exchanges that didn’t adapt lost access to banking services. Some, like Bitbns, a platform that faced scrutiny over its fiat withdrawal delays and lack of regulatory registration, became ghost towns. Others, like WazirX, a popular exchange that later partnered with NSE to build compliant trading rails, rebuilt from the ground up. The result? A cleaner, more regulated market—but fewer options for casual traders.

If you’re looking to trade crypto in India today, you’re not out of luck. The banned exchanges are gone, but the ones that followed the rules are still here. You’ll find platforms that now require full ID verification, limit withdrawal amounts, and work with licensed payment processors. Some even offer P2P trading with escrow, so you can buy Bitcoin without touching a bank account. What you won’t find anymore are exchanges promising instant withdrawals with no questions asked. The era of wild west crypto in India is over. What’s left is a tougher, slower, but safer system. Below, you’ll find real reviews of exchanges that made it through the purge, plus warnings about platforms still pretending to be legal. Skip the scams. Stick to the ones that passed the test.