INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Now cryptocurrency trading is all very public, and highly visible.New Delhi: In hundreds of India's small cities and towns, a generation
that has hardly had any experience with stocks and bonds is heading straight for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana
The average age of the 11 million users of CoinSwitch Kuber, a cryptocurrency trading app that didn't exist 18 months ago, is 25, and 55% of
them are from outside large metropolises like New Delhi or Mumbai. Widespread acceptance of digital tokens by millennials and Generation Z
is helping the industry step out of the shadows, a far cry from 2018 when the cofounders of a crypto exchange were briefly in police custody
for daring to put up a kiosk in a Bangalore shopping mall where people could swap their Bitcoin for money
Now trading is all very public, and highly visible
CoinSwitch Kuber has signed up a popular Bollywood youth icon for an ad campaign with the tagline, “Kucch toh badlega” — something
will change.Also Read: India's Largest Crypto Exchange CoinSwitch Kuber Turns Unicorn With $1.9 Billion ValuationFor CoinSwitch, which
started out as a an aggregator of best real-time prices for digital assets around the world, something already has
In 2018, the fledgling venture couldn't play on its home turf because India's monetary authority had instructed banks not to entertain
customers who dealt in virtual currency
It was only in March last year that the Supreme Court overturned the ban
CoinSwitch, whose app was released in June, acquired 11 million customers in 16 months
Investors took notice of the startup: It recently became the first in the country to raise money from Silicon valley venture capitalist
Andreessen Horowitz, at a valuation of $1.9 billion. Having gone mainstream in such a short time, the industry itself is demanding to be
“We've decided that we'll show our faces,” says Ashish Singhal, one of CoinSwitch's three cofounders
“Even if regulation harms our business in the short run, it's better than being forced to operate in a gray area with little certainty and
not much room for growth.”Fears of being outlawed have swirled since last year's court order that gave the dying industry new life
But that risk is now receding
While Beijing last month announced, in most unequivocal terms, its resolve to root out all transactions in virtual currencies, the consensus
opinion is that New Delhi will hesitate to take such an extreme step
That's partly because the relationship between private business and the state is different in India, where politicians need corporate
donations to fight expensive elections, and citizens don't like being told by the government whether tutoring, online gaming — or owning
crypto assets — is bad for them. But in part the industry's confidence stems from the belief that policy makers have been persuaded of
benefits to the economy from blockchain-based innovation
iSPIRT, an influential Bangalore-based think tank, is advising India to embrace the growing field of decentralized finance to close a $250
billion funding gap for small and midsize firms, and build a Wall Street for all on the internet, as Balaji Srinivasan, formerly the chief
technology officer at Coinbase Global Inc., the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, describes it. “We, as a country, missed out on
internet 1.0,” says Singhal
“We gave world-class talent to Google and Microsoft, including their current CEOs, but we didn't create those titans
With blockchain, we can build some global giants.”Still, mass adoption of crypto trading continues to make authorities — especially the
central bank — uncomfortable
CoinSwitch isn't the only firm employing celebrity endorsement to drum up business ahead of Diwali, the traditional gold-buying season
According to Bloomberg News, officials recently met with Amitabh Bachchan to inform the Bollywood superstar of their concerns over his
brand-ambassador deal with CoinDCX, another Indian crypto exchange. The current speculative fervor could use some tamping, though it's too
late to try anything more draconian
Putting an entire asset class off limits won't be fair to Generation Z investors
They have “grown up on the internet,” says Sharan Nair, CoinSwitch's chief business officer
“Many are techies like us who like to solve problems in the crypto world by contributing code
What can they do as shareholders of a bank whose website they don't like?”About 83% of urban Indians are aware of digital currencies,
while 16% actually own them, according to a survey by data analytics firm Kantar
Many more want to — the draw of crypto is now half as powerful as that of mutual funds, a product with which older generations have a far
That offers a glimpse of what investor portfolios will look like in future: A mix of digital assets and traditional financial products
Even without the reflected light of Bollywood stars, India's crypto industry isn't going dark again.Also Read: Bitcoin vs Gold This Diwali,
Starring Big B, Ranveer Singh
