When you search for Koinex, a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange that was once India’s largest and most trusted platform for trading Bitcoin and altcoins. Also known as Koinex India, it was the go-to place for early crypto adopters in India before banks started blocking crypto transactions in 2018. Koinex didn’t just offer trading—it gave Indian users a real way to buy crypto with INR, no VPNs, no middlemen. It launched in 2017, right when Bitcoin was hitting $10,000, and quickly became the most active exchange in the country. But by 2019, it vanished. No warning. No official shutdown notice. Just silence.
What killed Koinex? The RBI banking ban, a 2018 directive from India’s central bank that forced banks to cut off services to crypto businesses. Also known as RBI crypto ban, it didn’t make crypto illegal—but it made it impossible to deposit or withdraw rupees. Without bank access, exchanges couldn’t operate. Koinex tried to survive with peer-to-peer trades and offshore wallets, but users lost trust. Meanwhile, Binance, a global exchange that later launched INR trading after the RBI ban was overturned. Also known as Binance India, it stepped into the void with better security, lower fees, and global liquidity. Koinex’s team disappeared. The website went offline. Even their social media accounts stopped updating. Today, if you search for Koinex, you’ll find old forum threads, YouTube videos from 2018, and scam sites pretending to be the real thing.
Koinex’s collapse taught Indian crypto users one hard lesson: don’t put all your trust in a single exchange, especially if it’s tied to local banking. That’s why today’s top Indian traders use multiple platforms—some for INR deposits, others for global pairs. It’s also why the Supreme Court ruling, the 2020 decision that overturned the RBI ban. Also known as RBI crypto ban reversal, was a turning point. It didn’t bring back Koinex—but it opened the door for exchanges like WazirX, CoinSwitch Kuber, and ZebPay to build something more stable. If you’re new to crypto in India, you’ll never hear Koinex mentioned in ads or YouTube tutorials. But if you’ve been around since 2017, you remember it. And you know why you now check if an exchange has direct bank integration, real customer support, and a track record longer than a meme coin’s hype cycle.
Below, you’ll find real reviews of exchanges that actually work in India today—some that survived the crash, others that rose from its ashes. No fluff. No promises of quick riches. Just facts about what’s safe, what’s risky, and what you should avoid in 2025.
11 November
Koinex was India’s top crypto exchange in 2018 but shut down after the RBI ban. This review explains why it failed, what it got right, and how today’s exchanges learned from its mistakes.
