CoinSwitch Kuber recently become India’s newest, youngest and second crypto unicorn amid the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies even as government stance remains unclear. Investors are betting on the digital tokens even as authorities scrutinize buying and selling of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins.
Bengaluru-based CoinSwitch, founded in 2017, was launched as a global aggregator of crypto exchanges. It started its India operations in June last year. In an interaction with mint, CoinSwitch Kuber’s co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal talks about the story behind, future plans as it awaits India’s clear stance on the crypto bill, advise to retail investors on what to look for when choosing to invest in cryptos, and much more.
The story behind becoming India’s fastest crypto unicorn
When we started trading in cryptocurrencies back in 2016, we noticed that the prices vary greatly across all exchanges due to them being determined by the demand and supply on each individual platform. Here, we found an opportunity for a platform that aggregates all the exchanges to enable users to find the right price of a cryptocurrency at any given time. Hence, CoinSwitch was founded in 2017 by the three of us. Our aim — make crypto investments as easy as ordering food online. At its peak, CoinSwitch was available as a global crypto aggregator in more than 160 countries.
The company crossed 11 million registered users in a record 15 months in October with a diverse population as 55% of CoinSwitch Kuber’s users come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
We were backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital, Paradigm and Ribbit Capital in Series A funding round in January 2021 and further raised funding from Tiger Global in Series B round in April 2021. In fact, Tiger Global approached CoinSwitch for the funding, instead of the other way around, indicative of the success in India. CoinSwitch Kuber was Tiger Global’s first investment in an Indian crypto company.
Are you in talks with with the government for the crypto bill or to bring a clear stance on the same?
Given the novelty of the technology, regulatory uncertainty is understandable. India’s policy landscape is shaping up in a way very similar to what we have seen in other countries that have regulated cryptocurrencies.
It is important for India to lead the crypto and blockchain revolution and positive regulations from the Indian government can enable this as they will counter the existing hesitancy among many individuals and institutions, leading to greater adoption. CoinSwitch Kuber, along with other Indian crypto platforms, believe that crypto is a financial asset and not an alternative to fiat currency.
What do you think of the retail ownership in cryptos which may be bringing too much volatility, especially leading to a rally in unknown coins?
Since cryptocurrencies are at a nascent stage, they are volatile. Their prices will stabilise as the market matures. In the meantime, we recommend retail investors to assess the authenticity of a crypto asset by monitoring factors including the community behind the project, the problem it is solving, the market cap, historical performance to make an informed decision.
What happens if one day India bans cryptos (like China)?
We do not believe that the Indian government will ban crypto. The tone of the regulators has largely been positive and we expect encouraging regulations to be introduced. Given the government’s focus on digital India, we believe they will recognise the large-scale implications of fostering a crypto ecosystem that will contribute towards a technological and financial revolution.
Is CoinSwitch trying to introduce or tap other markets apart from cryptos, and go into services across DeFi system?
We currently do not have plans to tap into the DeFi ecosystem. However, we are planning to diversify our offerings to include multiple avenues of investment for the users through different products and asset classes. This is one of the key areas where the Series C funding raised will be utilised.
CoinSwitch Kuber aims to introduce such traditional assets so that it becomes a one-stop platform for an investor’s entire investment journey. We plan to integrate our platform’s characteristic simplicity into these traditional assets too to become India’s preferred investment destination.
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