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Topic: SBI's action against bank account holders dealing in crypto (Read 461 times)

full member
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I believe you are talking about GST here. GST registration is mandatory for turnover of above 20 lakhs of the products and services identified by the GST bill 2017. This bill however doesn't identify crypto. Now let's say you want to deal p2p and there are people who will want to deal with you so there are few options here:
You meet at a commonplace like a coffee shop or car parking or malls. Most exchanges closed down their offices when the Rbi restricted their banking support. It doesn't mean that the entire place is locked down,  only the operation part was hampered. The different govt. Dept. always have a clash between themselves. I agree that not everywhere logic works but where logic fails money talks. May I know what led you to talk to the tax officials?  Let's see what SC judgement would be.
It seems he is talking about income tax, every Individual who had recorded transaction in their bank for whatever reasons should pay their income taxes if it exceeds the limits.But when people using p2p hard cash method can stay away from paying taxes but when you are dealing in person there is chance for scam if it involves high amount.
jr. member
Activity: 102
Merit: 5
Nationalized bank accounts should never be trusted or used while dealing with crypto. Also, how can these banks even know about crypto transactions when the deals are p2p?
It is not easy but if they really want to weed out the transactions then they can really do that if you are getting transaction from different accounts across the country they can sort that out who is doing these transactions and they can question you about the different sources of money from different accounts, so it is possible if they really wanted to target users.

I have a history of dealing in wholesale electronics back in the day and my customers were from all across the country as I shipped stuff out from the kolkata port. There was no mention of any commercial or current accounts, most of these transactions occurred through the savings account.  My dad and I primarily used Bank of Baroda, UBI and SBI accounts in our names to do this. And I reckon this is a common practice among traders across all the ports of India.

By your logic, the banks should close down my account because there are multiple payments coming from different sources? Isn't that stretching the imagination a bit too much? There is no way one can track the reason of a crypto transaction through p2p trades. And you guys are forgetting the most important factor of them all. It is not prohibited to trade or acquire cryptocurrencies as individuals. Only the commercial applications are prohibited, as in exchanges, shops, web stores, etc. If you want, you can even get paid in crypto for your services. Of course they do not say this explicitly anywhere but I have checked from numerous high ranking officials who are involved in the crypto taxation process that have confirmed this.


I believe you are talking about GST here. GST registration is mandatory for turnover of above 20 lakhs of the products and services identified by the GST bill 2017. This bill however doesn't identify crypto. Now let's say you want to deal p2p and there are people who will want to deal with you so there are few options here:
You meet at a commonplace like a coffee shop or car parking or malls. Most exchanges closed down their offices when the Rbi restricted their banking support. It doesn't mean that the entire place is locked down,  only the operation part was hampered. The different govt. Dept. always have a clash between themselves. I agree that not everywhere logic works but where logic fails money talks. May I know what led you to talk to the tax officials?  Let's see what SC judgement would be.
hero member
Activity: 1778
Merit: 764
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Nationalized bank accounts should never be trusted or used while dealing with crypto. Also, how can these banks even know about crypto transactions when the deals are p2p?
It is not easy but if they really want to weed out the transactions then they can really do that if you are getting transaction from different accounts across the country they can sort that out who is doing these transactions and they can question you about the different sources of money from different accounts, so it is possible if they really wanted to target users.

I have a history of dealing in wholesale electronics back in the day and my customers were from all across the country as I shipped stuff out from the kolkata port. There was no mention of any commercial or current accounts, most of these transactions occurred through the savings account.  My dad and I primarily used Bank of Baroda, UBI and SBI accounts in our names to do this. And I reckon this is a common practice among traders across all the ports of India.

By your logic, the banks should close down my account because there are multiple payments coming from different sources? Isn't that stretching the imagination a bit too much? There is no way one can track the reason of a crypto transaction through p2p trades. And you guys are forgetting the most important factor of them all. It is not prohibited to trade or acquire cryptocurrencies as individuals. Only the commercial applications are prohibited, as in exchanges, shops, web stores, etc. If you want, you can even get paid in crypto for your services. Of course they do not say this explicitly anywhere but I have checked from numerous high ranking officials who are involved in the crypto taxation process that have confirmed this.
hero member
Activity: 2464
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There are numerous reports on bank accounts being closed/blocked due to dealings in bitcoin and other cryptos. The most affected are the customers of Kotak bank. Is there any specific report where an individuals or business bank account has been closed by State bank due to similar reason?
Would you care to share the related links or articles link for further understanding of this issue. So far I've not come across any such incident nor my acquaintances as well. If what you are saying is true then we could check with related bank about any circular issue for the same.

https://m.rbi.org.in//Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=11243&Mode=0

The supreme court will give judgement soon let's see if circular lifts or retains!
full member
Activity: 1106
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I have been using my SBI account since 4 years and have been doing all crypto related transactions from this account only.
I have never faced any issue as such. Though I have heard some  members account getting frozen but it was not an SBI account holder though.
Those of you saying it was just a rumor and they didn't know anybody whose account actually got blocked, I must say I know a person whose account got frozen and the person had to go to the bank to withdraw his money.
But these were the things in the past. From the last 1.5 years there's no issues with the banks.
Every bank should follow the guidelines of RBI, so there is no exceptions for SBI.If they didn't found anything with transactions related to cryptos then its obviously lazy people working in the government sector that is why they didn't found anything but if they found then surely anyone's account is in the risk of getting frozen.
sr. member
Activity: 770
Merit: 268
There are numerous reports on bank accounts being closed/blocked due to dealings in bitcoin and other cryptos. The most affected are the customers of Kotak bank. Is there any specific report where an individuals or business bank account has been closed by State bank due to similar reason?
Would you care to share the related links or articles link for further understanding of this issue. So far I've not come across any such incident nor my acquaintances as well. If what you are saying is true then we could check with related bank about any circular issue for the same.
hero member
Activity: 2674
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Nothing lasts forever
I have been using my SBI account since 4 years and have been doing all crypto related transactions from this account only.
I have never faced any issue as such. Though I have heard some  members account getting frozen but it was not an SBI account holder though.
Those of you saying it was just a rumor and they didn't know anybody whose account actually got blocked, I must say I know a person whose account got frozen and the person had to go to the bank to withdraw his money.
But these were the things in the past. From the last 1.5 years there's no issues with the banks.
sr. member
Activity: 585
Merit: 251
Bank account blocking was majorly seen 2 years back and after RBI ban if people are still depositing big funds from known exchange or other services or buying crypto using bank account then i think its their problem as they are not to be fully aware or deliberately doing it. Recent hearing in supreme court RBI said that virtual currency are not ban in country but it can not be used with current banking regularities.
newbie
Activity: 5
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Yes, They closed some accounts in 2017-2018 due to lots of transections. Before they close account they sent inquiry on those accounts. They will warn us to not take any crypto related payment. This is not only in India, there are lots of other countries bank which are not allowing crypto payments.
jr. member
Activity: 102
Merit: 5
These are the different account status that a bank can keep with the depositor that I have encountered:

- Debit freeze : means that customer cannot withdraw money . Prevalent when the account have been used to receive money from other hacked accounts or involved in Ponzi dealings.
- Credit freeze : means that the customer cannot deposit money. Very prevalent in the case of crypto.
- Account closed : permanent.
- Account inactive : temporarily.
- Restricted : restricted use.

If the transactions amounts are big then bank can temporarily restrict account from using other features like creating fd's etc. until customer provides proof of the source of the money.
full member
Activity: 1106
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~snip
Possibility of your transaction get noticed is fairly less but if they know this involves cryptos then they might send you a warning first.
One of my social media friend also receives warning from kotak and his account is not accessible for couple of days.
What happened after that, after getting the warning what happened and i am sure his account is accessible after a couple of days because i am in contact with an user in the crypto community who is having communication with Kotak authorities and he assured that there is no account confiscated till now in India and i trust his inference. With the transaction i conducted recently i am waiting for a warning, lets see whether they are sending something and my intuition is that they are not going to do that because i have received many huge transactions after the RBI ban and i never got anything till now, may be i was lucky.
Private banks are more reliable to be honest,so informing the bank manager will help the issue to get resolved but he didn't use that account from crypto related transactions so everything is fine for him.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
~snip
Possibility of your transaction get noticed is fairly less but if they know this involves cryptos then they might send you a warning first.
One of my social media friend also receives warning from kotak and his account is not accessible for couple of days.
What happened after that, after getting the warning what happened and i am sure his account is accessible after a couple of days because i am in contact with an user in the crypto community who is having communication with Kotak authorities and he assured that there is no account confiscated till now in India and i trust his inference. With the transaction i conducted recently i am waiting for a warning, lets see whether they are sending something and my intuition is that they are not going to do that because i have received many huge transactions after the RBI ban and i never got anything till now, may be i was lucky.
full member
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^ Most don't care enough to go to court, they would rather just let go of the account.
Most do not dare to go to the legal system to fight because of the delay in getting justice or they are not paying their taxes properly but no one will let the account go and think that everything will be fine, if they confiscate your account then there will be other legal actions that will be waiting for you.

Wish I was as courageous as you.
It is not about getting courage, i will update if there is any action against me, i will not publicly specify the details of my account and amount as i know it will be a public information challenging the authorities, i am not doing that here but just want to know whether they will take any action and if they do i will file a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and i can prove that i have not done anything wrong as i am a law abiding citizen paying all the taxes in time.
Possibility of your transaction get noticed is fairly less but if they know this involves cryptos then they might send you a warning first.

One of my social media friend also receives warning from kotak and his account is not accessible for couple of days.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
^ Most don't care enough to go to court, they would rather just let go of the account.
Most do not dare to go to the legal system to fight because of the delay in getting justice or they are not paying their taxes properly but no one will let the account go and think that everything will be fine, if they confiscate your account then there will be other legal actions that will be waiting for you.

Wish I was as courageous as you.
It is not about getting courage, i will update if there is any action against me, i will not publicly specify the details of my account and amount as i know it will be a public information challenging the authorities, i am not doing that here but just want to know whether they will take any action and if they do i will file a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and i can prove that i have not done anything wrong as i am a law abiding citizen paying all the taxes in time.
hero member
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^ Most don't care enough to go to court, they would rather just let go of the account.

To be precise in the past two days i sold BSV which i was holding for a long time but not everything and it is a fairly huge amount in Kotak bank just to check after seeing this topic. Lets see what happens Grin.

Wish I was as courageous as you.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
Some people put crypto remarks in crypto transactions(mistakenly/deliberately idk), this makes banks aware of it.
These are not admissible proof in court that i put something as remarks for me to understand and i can use any code word i like to make sure i identify the transaction.

And quite possibly, if you linked your bank account to zebpay/etc when there was no rbi ban, then they can suspect that you used to deal in crypto and might still be doing it.
If i made a transaction with crypto exchanges before the RBI ban and if the bank is going to target me because i was doing something which was not having any legal implication and if they target me because they have a doubt that i am trading crypto i can very well drag them to court. I have done transaction with all the crypto exchanges and i have withdraw huge sums of amount and i have paid taxes on those transactions and if they are going to target for some profit that i made and paid taxes how are they going to target me saying that i have done something illegal.

To be precise in the past two days i sold BSV which i was holding for a long time but not everything and it is a fairly huge amount in Kotak bank just to check after seeing this topic. Lets see what happens Grin.
full member
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Kotak is strict on crypto, they sent notices, calls to consumers for suspected transactions, even when you register they tell to not do any transactions in crypto (click me!)

Won't be surprised if they closed the accounts.
AFAIK,they only freeze accounts,if they are closing your account then they are supposed to return any amount left on your bank acount so we may not lose our money but the account so don't do big transactions is the only way to save us from losing our accounts.
hero member
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Kotak is strict on crypto, they sent notices, calls to consumers for suspected transactions, even when you register they tell to not do any transactions in crypto
Won't be surprised if they closed the accounts.
How about the customers who are having account before they added this disclaimer.

Disclaimer was for awareness's sake, if rbi puts a guideline, does it matter when you created the account?

Quote
my biggest doubt is that how are they going to determine whether someone is dealing with bitcoin or other assets, either they need to create a separate wing to monitor those which is expensive as it is not that easy to monitor those unless they want to monitor and question every transaction and how they are going to provide a proof in court when the case regarding it is still sitting in Supreme court.

Some people put crypto remarks in crypto transactions(mistakenly/deliberately idk), this makes banks aware of it.

And quite possibly, if you linked your bank account to zebpay/etc when there was no rbi ban, then they can suspect that you used to deal in crypto and might still be doing it.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
Kotak is strict on crypto, they sent notices, calls to consumers for suspected transactions, even when you register they tell to not do any transactions in crypto
Won't be surprised if they closed the accounts.
How about the customers who are having account before they added this disclaimer and my biggest doubt is that how are they going to determine whether someone is dealing with bitcoin or other assets, either they need to create a separate wing to monitor those which is expensive as it is not that easy to monitor those unless they want to monitor and question every transaction and how they are going to provide a proof in court when the case regarding it is still sitting in Supreme court.
hero member
Activity: 2464
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Kotak is strict on crypto, they sent notices, calls to consumers for suspected transactions, even when you register they tell to not do any transactions in crypto (click me!)

Won't be surprised if they closed the accounts.

Edit: not close, but freeze
legendary
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Possibly,when huge transactions are happening between two saving accounts and even in current account receiving big amount from random third parties with no company account has chances of getting caught but someone who has limit less than a lakh per month will be out of radar for sure from my experience.

Private sector banks don't question users like state banks but banks like ICICI, HDFC, SBI all are more interested in such big transactions. The smaller banks don't have so much interest in user's funds.
full member
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When sender of money writes something related to cryptos while making deposit of doing IMPS or UPI then this will bring an alarm to our account and they will watch changes in activity and if it got more transactions related to cryptos then possibly get blocked without noticing about retriving.

I guess even if the sender doesn't mention anything but is caught having crypto deals earlier, they'll question the source of funds every time. This situation has existed since years as even in 2016, the banks were terribly against crypto transactions and considered them illegal but now they have become even more strict by closing the accounts. Do they have a right on the funds too? Want to know from the affected users whether they managed to reopen their accounts and remove the funds.
Possibly,when huge transactions are happening between two saving accounts and even in current account receiving big amount from random third parties with no company account has chances of getting caught but someone who has limit less than a lakh per month will be out of radar for sure from my experience.
legendary
Activity: 2632
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When sender of money writes something related to cryptos while making deposit of doing IMPS or UPI then this will bring an alarm to our account and they will watch changes in activity and if it got more transactions related to cryptos then possibly get blocked without noticing about retriving.

I guess even if the sender doesn't mention anything but is caught having crypto deals earlier, they'll question the source of funds every time. This situation has existed since years as even in 2016, the banks were terribly against crypto transactions and considered them illegal but now they have become even more strict by closing the accounts. Do they have a right on the funds too? Want to know from the affected users whether they managed to reopen their accounts and remove the funds.
full member
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Nationalized bank accounts should never be trusted or used while dealing with crypto. Also, how can these banks even know about crypto transactions when the deals are p2p?
When sender of money writes something related to cryptos while making deposit of doing IMPS or UPI then this will bring an alarm to our account and they will watch changes in activity and if it got more transactions related to cryptos then possibly get blocked without noticing about retriving.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
Nationalized bank accounts should never be trusted or used while dealing with crypto. Also, how can these banks even know about crypto transactions when the deals are p2p?
It is not easy but if they really want to weed out the transactions then they can really do that if you are getting transaction from different accounts across the country they can sort that out who is doing these transactions and they can question you about the different sources of money from different accounts, so it is possible if they really wanted to target users.
legendary
Activity: 2632
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Nationalized bank accounts should never be trusted or used while dealing with crypto. Also, how can these banks even know about crypto transactions when the deals are p2p?
jr. member
Activity: 102
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PSU banks care less about closing accounts on the basis of complaints as compared to private banks.
legendary
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I am using my sbi bank account at localbitcoins and other p2p crypto exchanges since more than 4 years with any issue and one of my friend using his current account also for p2p exchange. Maybe there is a chance to block your account if they identified the use of crypto-related then it will possible because of RBI rules.
full member
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There are numerous reports on bank accounts being closed/blocked due to dealings in bitcoin and other cryptos. The most affected are the customers of Kotak bank. Is there any specific report where an individuals or business bank account has been closed by State bank due to similar reason?
I had also done trading with my SBI account and never get any issues with that because I never done trading for huge amount so if you forund that you are dealing with cryptos then chances of account will be freezed since RBI warned them to do so.
hero member
Activity: 1302
Merit: 532
There are numerous reports on bank accounts being closed/blocked due to dealings in bitcoin and other cryptos.
I am hearing about these rumors but i have not seen any users reporting here about account blockage.

There have been few incidents related to hacked accounts. Where FIR was registered against a few peopl because they had received money from those hacked accounts! I don't know about any other incidents about account closure!
This is true, hacked credit cards are used to purchase coins and the accounts that got these amounts are scrutinized and questioned, other than than i have not heard any users complaining about account closure because they are dealing with bitcoin and other crypto.
legendary
Activity: 3080
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Frankly, I didn't see any such reports related to Indian bank accounts in recent times! How did you came to know that the accounts are being closed? Can you please share any link or a screenshot of a communication on a similar line? Even I am shocked to know this!

There have been few incidents related to hacked accounts. Where FIR was registered against a few peopl because they had received money from those hacked accounts! I don't know about any other incidents about account closure!
jr. member
Activity: 102
Merit: 5
There are numerous reports on bank accounts being closed/blocked due to dealings in bitcoin and other cryptos. The most affected are the customers of Kotak bank. Is there any specific report where an individuals or business bank account has been closed by State bank due to similar reason?
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