India does not have a lot of companies around cryptocurrencies or their trading, and for good reason. Country’s banking regulator RBI issued an industry wide ban in 2018, which almost crippled whatever crytpo companies existed at that time, while shutting doors to new ones.
But then came Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in March this year, which nullified the earlier RBI ban. Ever since, the winds have changed and the more resilient cyrpto companies that survived the RBI ban, are now seeing flourish. That holds true for CoinDCX as well, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country. As a result, the Mumbai based startup recently announced a fresh $2.5 million capital raise from Polychain Capital, the financial arm of Coinbase ventures, an American cryptocurrency company.
This is not the first time Polychain Capital has expressed interest in the company and the Indian cryptocurrency market. In CoinDCX’s Series A funding round, Polychain had invested $3 million, which was the first such investment in the Indian cryptocurrency sphere.
The company states that this capital will be used to handle the growth spurt that has been initiated by RBI’s announcement. The company aims to push the number of crypto adopters in India to 50 million, and divert these funds to help reach that goal. CoinDCX also plans to build a user-focused and secure exchange to support the growing demand for crypto in India.
However, that is not the only issue. While the market is surely growing, cryptocurrency as a concept that still eludes a major percentage of Indian population. India has a lot of potential when it comes to the crypto market, based on numbers alone, but there’s a dire need of education. To address that, CoinDCX has also launched a $1.3 million initiative for educational campaigns, meetup events, community engagements, and consumer campaigns. The company aims to roll out an online academy, as a part of the initiative, which is a blockchain and cryptocurrency learning program aimed towards first-time crypto traders.
In April 2018, RBI instructed all banks under the regulator to not deal in virtual currencies or provide services to individuals and organisations dealing in cryptocurrency such as bitcoin. The regulator’s moves were directed at a consistent effort towards opposing payment systems that undermined the integrity of the banking system. The decision caused a lot of companies to either shut down, or shift their operations outside country lines. However, when it was recanted in February, companies rejoiced, and the market has been nothing but flourishing ever since then.
RBI also addressed in an RTI enquiry, that was answered last week, that there is no prohibition on banks in providing accounts to these dealers.
With the environment ripe for cryptocurrency companies to nurture, one can expect a lot more investments like these to follow.
