India’s UPI could become a critical bridge between the country’s traditional financial system and crypto as digital assets move beyond trading and into payments, settlement and tokenised finance.
The bigger opportunity for India’s crypto ecosystem may not simply be getting more people to buy Bitcoin. It could make it easier for rupees to move into digital assets, for digital assets to move back into rupees, and for blockchain-based financial products to connect with the country’s existing payment infrastructure.
That is where UPI could play a significant role.
Coinbase India is preparing to upgrade its payment rails in the country, John O’Loghlen, Coinbase’s regional managing director, said in an interview with Livemint. While he did not name UPI directly, he described the upcoming upgrade as involving “one of the leading payment technologies in India, pioneered by the government”.
“We’re actually going to be announcing an upgrade to our payment rails in India soon,” O’Loghlen said. The upgrade, he added, would make it “very easy to move money in and out of your account.”
From rupees to crypto—and back
For Indian crypto users, the ability to move money seamlessly between the banking system and digital assets is crucial.
Coinbase India already allows users to “cash out of your crypto into Indian rupees” and to “top up to buy digital assets with Indian rupees”, O’Loghlen said.
Users can also move digital assets from another exchange or wallet into their Coinbase India account, subject to compliance requirements.
This makes payment infrastructure an important part of crypto adoption. The easier it is to move INR into a regulated crypto platform—and convert digital assets back into INR—the less friction users face between traditional finance and crypto.
Stablecoins could widen the use case
The role of payment infrastructure could become even more important as crypto moves beyond Bitcoin and other investment assets.
“The practical use case for digital assets in the last 24 months has largely been around stablecoins,” O’Loghlen said.
Stablecoins, he said, can enable payments and transfers in a “real-time, low-cost” environment. Businesses can also use them to move money globally “atomically, programmatically”.
That creates a potential connection between UPI and the next generation of digital-asset use cases: UPI can provide the familiar rupee payment layer, while blockchain networks and stablecoins can enable new forms of digital settlement.
Where tokenisation fits in
O’Loghlen also sees tokenisation as another major development. Stocks, ETFs and other financial assets are increasingly being explored on blockchain networks.
Tokenisation, he said, can bring “faster settlement times, lower transaction costs, 24-7 trading”.
For India, this could eventually create a broader financial ecosystem where UPI handles the movement of rupees, while blockchain rails handle digital assets and tokenised financial products.
The central question for crypto in India, therefore, is increasingly shifting from simply “How do I buy Bitcoin?” to “How seamlessly can India’s payment infrastructure connect my rupees to the digital-asset economy?”