I am a long-term crypto trader been stuck with ZebPay and Coinbase for over 8 years to deposit my BTC, Doge, BCH, LTC, etc. and to make INR transactions to my bank account. Those are great legacy crypto exchanges I love.
With someone’s influence, I wanted to try CoinSwitch Kuber Exchange, and I went sleepless that night for making such a wonderful decision.
Here’s my experience with “The genuine exchange – CoinSwitch Kuber”. Read my full CoinSwitch review to learn an excellent lesson on how to protect your crypto.
The Story of Losing ₹173000 Worth Bitcoin on CoinSwitch India App
While I was trading peacefully on ZebPay, one of the largest and established Crypto trading platform. I decided to try a different platform for a change and to save some money deducted as maker & taker fee and to avoid being charged a monthly maintenance fee if I don’t make any trades or lend BTC.
While I was skeptical about getting started with WazirX or Binance, later I got introduced to CoinSwitch which is FIU-IND registered Bitcoin exchange.
I decided to give this crypto platform a shot.
CoinSwitch allows its KYC completed users to deposit INR and purchase crypto. I think we won’t have any trouble with this since we are depositing INR from our bank account to CoinSwitch Kuber.
The problem is for the users who want to deposit crypto from other wallets…
My primary source of my Bitcoin is through FreeBitco.in where I make and deposit my BTC to earn 4.08% (standard members) to 4.49% (premium members). I’ve been a member of this Bitcoin faucet cum wallet since 2015. It is the top-notch faucet in the world where millions of users around the world use it to earn Bitcoin without investment through faucet, reward, and paid to read email feature. And I never get into their Multiply BTC and Betting section to be on the safer side.
They don’t have any customer support, but for over a decade, they never failed to pay me within 4 – 6 hours after requesting the payment or requesting for withdrawal.
Now, getting back to my story, after completing KYC with CoinSwitch Kuber, I also got approval to invest crypto on CoinSwitch Pro.
My instinct was telling me don’t send BTC to that wallet knowing that they have the pit stop before approving my deposit.
I am good at making poor choices in life and proceeded with the BTC deposit to my CoinSwitch Pro account from FreeBitco.in.
I requested for a slow payment instead of instant withdrawal option to save fees of 500 Sathosi just to lose 2800000 Sathosi lol…
Look at the proof of transaction made from Freebitco.in account.
Once I got confirmation from FreeBitco.in, I got a confirmation email from CoinSwitch Pro as well.
I was happy that my transaction has completed and got ready for trading since the BTC price was at a peak at that time.
CoinSwitch’s Proof of Wallet Ownership and Proof of Transaction – The Pit Stop
Unlike ZebPay and other top crypto wallets, CoinSwitch Kuber wants the users to submit 2 proofs in order to approve the deposits. The purpose of this is to prevent fraud.
As requested, I submitted the proof of profile page of freebitco.in wallet.
But, then came the problem I didn’t think about. The freebitco.in wallet doesn’t have any option to see transaction history or transaction summary.
I am not aware of the fact that the Freebitco.in doesn’t transaction summary, and I was like I have the payment email from Freebitco.in also with a link to Blockchain transaction summary.
I could not submit the transaction summary screenshot from freebitco.in wallet.
CoinSwitch’s support team was really outstanding. They guided me to get the information they wanted via phone call and email.
I followed their instruction to send a screen recording to show the problem I was facing with Freebitco.in with profile page, Bitcoin balance page, withdrawal page, etc.
By that time, I realised these people will not accept my deposit without the screenshot from the source wallet.
I sought assistance from freebitco.in wallet support, but I didn’t get any reply from them.
I realized it wasn’t possible. Why don’t get my BTC back to my freebitco.in wallet.
Then I told the CoinSwitch support team that the freebitco.in private wallet doesn’t have the option to view the transaction summary or transaction history and asked for refund/reverse my transaction.
At least CoinSwitch could have refunded my money…
They sent me an email, asking me to do video KYC and verbally disclose the address from which the BTC has been sent.
The moment I received that email, my last hope of recovering my Bitcoin vanished.
They wanted me to do Video KYC holding my PAN card with a white paper on which the word CoinSwitch is written with date. Along with this they want to share the screenshot of freebico.in wallet source BTC address from where the BTC has been deposited.
I can perform video KYC holding the PAN card and white paper with the requested information. But, freebitco.in has processed mass Bitcoin payment (refer To 12) to multiple BTC addresses from their own wallet address. So, I won’t be able to get a screenshot of my account page with that deposit address.
I tried to convey them about this, and they were not ready to help me with this.
And successfully I lost 173000 approx. 0.028₿ just like that…
Even if they didn’t accept my Bitcoin deposit, they could have refunded my money.
According to their terms, there was a mistake from my end. Still, they could have also charged me a huge fine for this instead of completely blocking my Bitcoin.
What happened to my Crypto Sent to CoinSwitch BTC Wallet?
CoinSwitch support stated that my deposited cryptocurrency will remain stuck in the Blockchain indefinitely.
I’m uncertain about its accuracy, but I have my own convictions.
There are chances thousands of people would have lost their hard earned crypto because of this verification process.
The Hidden Risk of Depositing Crypto on CoinSwitch India:
Crypto transfers are highly risky, unlike regular currency transactions, and a single mistake can cause permanent loss of our crypto.
Usually, people will lose their crypto because of these popular reasons.
- Sending funds to wrong address (Copy or paste error).
- Sending Crypto to an unsupported address.
Adding to this, it’s crucial to recognize that losing crypto can also occur when additional transaction details are required for verification, but cannot be provided.
Unlike wallets like ZebPay, CoinSwitch requires us to submit certain details and there are chances you might not be able to get those details if you’re not using established crypto exchange platforms.
There are high risks if you’re using hardware wallets, native software wallet, paper wallet, etc. If you’re not able to prove the ownership of the wallet and transaction.
This is a huge hidden risk of crypto exchanges like CoinSwitch and other similar wallets. I highly recommend using wallets that don’t question us about the crypto deposits but still abide by the government regulations.
Even if we are going to sell illegal crypto, it will be notified to the government with TDS deduction that can be retrieved in FORM 26AS. If we really did illegal transaction, government is there to question us.
So, crypto users in India should be aware of this and try not losing our crypto.
What does this mean to the People who Earn Bitcoin Online?
People who work on Bitcoin survey sites or Bitcoin faucets or any other freelance websites that pay Bitcoin or Altcoins note you cannot directly transfer that money to crypto exchanges like CoinSwitch PRO.
It’s time to say goodbye to your hard earned money because you won’t be able to submit the proof of transaction or proof of wallet on these
What should you do?
Transfer crypto to established wallets that comply with local government crypto policies like Coinbase, Binance, ZebPay, WazirX, where you can save your crypto securely.
Later, you can decide to sell/trade Bitcoin on that platform or you can transfer it to crypto exchanges like CoinSwitch, provide a proper transaction summary and grow your portfolio there.
I’d call you crazy if you are going to transfer crypto to multiple wallets to lose some of the hard earned crypto as network fees and platform fees by transferring it from wallet to wallet. Choose one and use it to store crypto and trade crypto. I would say ZebPay.
CoinSwitch Review – Fake or Legit Crypto Exchange:
Here is my genuine CoinSwitch Review.
While a lot of people tell that it’s an authentic platform and they don’t lie, I found a lot of negative CoinSwitch reviews on TrustPilot.
There are less likely chances CoinSwitch is going to be a fake crypto exchange. It’s a genuine FIU registered Indian Crypto exchange.
But, it’s all about the customer experience.
I think it’s good for beginners who purchase crypto by depositing INR from their bank account.
If you’re going to deposit your crypto, ensure you got proofs, else stay away from CoinSwitch for good.
And CoinSwitch doesn’t allow Crypto withdrawal, which is not good for advanced crypto traders.
I am not a fan of their confusing UI of CoinSwitch Android app and website switching between CoinSwitch and CoinSwitch Pro. But, every user has their own UI preference. The one which I find bad, the other might feel better.
I recommend ZebPay, which has simple UI for beginners and experience traders. Also, they provide hassle free crypto and INR transactions.
My Seamless ZebPay Experience After CoinSwitch Chaos:
After losing money on CoinSwitch, I switched back to ZebPay and made a transaction.
I had a really smooth experience with ZebPay that I’d like to share with you.
The universe paid me back a part of the money I lost via Freebico.in referral contest. I received $600 for free winning the referral contest a week after losing money on CointSwitch.
I transferred my balance from Freebitco.in to ZebPay like I did it with CoinSwitch.
Freebitco.in processed the payment within a few hours as usual.
Thanks to ZebPay, they immediately credited my Bitcoin into my ZebPay Bitcoin wallet without holding it like CoinSwitch did.
Take a look at the ZebPay wallet, where 0.020741 BTC was deposited right away.
I am all set to trade my Bitcoin for INR.
Without any delay, I took advantage of the price increase to trade my Bitcoin for Indian Rupee.
Once the trading is complete, ZebPay deposited my money to INR wallet.
Any FIU compliant crypto exchange like ZebPay deducts TDS and GST. So, each and every transaction is monitored by the Govt. of India.
After completing the trade, I am going to withdraw a part of the money to show you how easy it is to transfer the money to the bank account from ZebPay.
I requested to withdraw ₹18000 from my ZebPay account to my bank account.
And boom, it was instant. New accounts are going to take 24 hours for security measures but they will not hold your money.
ZebPay is going to charge 15% + GST as a fee per transaction.
After the fee deduction, I received ₹17982.30 from my ₹18000.
And my story ends…
It’s an excellent lesson for me and I wanted fellow crypto users to be aware of such worst terms and not lose their crypto.
My Advice to Crypto Users in India:
- Choose the crypto exchange platform carefully.
- Read their terms and conditions properly.
- Test the platform by depositing a less crypto initially before investing an enormous amount.
- Triple check the address and crypto compatibility of the wallet.
- Beware of monthly maintenance fees, if there are any.
