Tag: coinswitch

India’s WazirX Sees 90 Percent Dip in Crypto Trading Volume Amid Regulatory Delays

WazirX disclosed the trajectory of its business this year only to give an insight into the slump spell that the crypto market is under as India awaits to complete regulatory deployments to oversee the sector. The Indian crypto trading platform, in 2023, managed to generate around $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,315 crore) in terms of trading volume. This is a sharp 90 percent decline from its previous year’s trading volume of $10 billion (roughly Rs. 83,151 crore) and 2021’s figure of $43 billion (roughly Rs. 3,57,534 crore).

In terms of addressing the potential reasons why trading volumes may have sunk this year, WazirX decided to keep its lips sealed. Interestingly, its competitor CoinDCX crypto exchange fired 12 percent of its workforce earlier this year, clearly pinning the blame for pushing investors away on India’s tax regime.

The exchange, did however, give other insights that it observed in-terms of trading patterns in India for the year of 2023. Bitcoin (BTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), and Polygon (MATIC) emerged as the most traded cryptocurrencies among members of the Indian crypto community on WazirX.

Women constituted 22 percent of the total trading volume on the platform, and women aged between 21-40 years made up 83 percent of the total volume traded by all women users. In the case of men, the age bracket of 21-40 years constituted 76 percent of all men users on the platform.

Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana house the bigger shares of traders, whereas the states with the highest trading volumes are Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Haryana.

The Vice President of the trading platform, Rajagopal Menon, has projected a bright future for blockchain-related sectors in the days to come.

“With the advent of maturing blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies are set to evolve beyond speculative assets, becoming integrated within supply chain management, healthcare, and digital identity verification. Asset tokenisation is positioned to become a prominent trend. User experiences across Web3 technologies will witness a revolution in 2024, and the Bitcoin halving signals a bull market in coming times,” Menon said, in a rather optimistic forecast for the crypto sector.

Along with CoinDCX, CoinSwitch recently accepted that crypto trading volumes and user queries have indeed taken a hit in India, which have had clear impact on the business.

As far as India’s crypto laws are concerned, it could take another eighteen months leading up to mid-2025 for all crypto regulations to see light of the day in the nation. India is accessing all possible impacts of involving crypto with its existing financial systems.

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‘Earn’: CoinSwitch Launches New Feature to Let Users Earn Passive Income via Crypto Holdings

CoinSwitch, one of India’s recognised crypto exchanges, is expanding its services portfolio to attract more users onboard its platform. In an announcement shared this week — the exchange launched a new feature called ‘Earn’. Through this, CoinSwitch will let users ‘lock-in’ their crypto assets and earn rewards in the form of cryptocurrencies. With this offering, CoinSwitch may be looking at increasing the number of people who engage with crypto on its platform, given that the sector is still largely unregulated and volatile in India.

For the first phase of its roll out, CoinSwitch users will be able to use four cryptocurrencies — Solana, Cardano, Polygon, and Near as crypto deposits. Each of these four crypto assets already have a fixed reward rate.

For Solana deposits, users will be able to earn up to seven percent rewards. Similarly for Cardano, Polygon, and Near — the reward rates stand at three percent, 5.5 percent, and 8.5 percent, respectively. It is to be noted that these Earn rewards may be subject of market fluctuation, depending on the number of people who lock in their cryptocurrencies on the platform. The transaction volume of the underlaying blockchains will also impact the percentage of these rewards.

“The rewards are issued by the blockchain, as per its rules. This is a safe and attractive program for our users to monetize their holdings without having to sell,” said Balaji Srihari, Business Head, CoinSwitch while commenting on the development.

The platform has further specified that in case anyone using the Earn feature wishes to unlock their crypto deposits, they will be allowed to do so at any time.

In recent months, Indian exchanges have reported a drop in trading volumes. This has been triggered because of an overall industrial slowdown. In addition, back-to-back interest rate hikes in the US as well as the targeting of crypto players like Binance and Coinbase by the SEC in the US also had negative effect on the market momentum internationally.

CoinSwitch, in August this year, trimmed its customer support staff citing a drop in user engagements. In the same month, CoinDCX crypto exchange also fired twelve percent of its work force blaming India’s crypto tax regime for pushing potential investors away.

India is expected to get a clearer legal framework to govern crypto firms by December this year. The G20 nations, along with India, have drafted the main points around which these crypto rules would be based.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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CoinSwitch Cites Drop in User Queries for Trimming Customer Support Team: Details

The global crypto market, that is currently undergoing a slump, could be losing community members who do not have an appetite for risky investments at the time. This impact of the slowdown has been highlighted by crypto exchange CoinSwitch after it laid off 44 employees earlier this month from its customer support team due a drop in customer queries. The company is now among many facing the brunt of dealing with volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies, especially in the lack of rules and regulations dedicated to overseeing the sector.

Founded in 2017, CoinSwitch is a Bengaluru-based crypto exchange that claims to be catering to over 18 million users. “Queries from our users have dropped to just ten percent of what they used to be around a year ago. People who have been reaching out to us, usually tend to have questions regarding their KYC verifications,” a company official told Gadgets 360.

“We continuously evaluate our business to stay competitive, prioritizing innovation, value, and service for our customers. To that end, we right-sized our customer support team to align with the present volume of customer queries on our platform. This impacted the roles of 44 members of our customer support team, who voluntarily resigned from their roles after a detailed discussion with their managers earlier this month,” a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

“Over the last year, many support team members have been absorbed into other functions based on the suitability of their skills for the other roles. We are extending all our support to the impacted employees. As and when volumes grow and we open new roles, we will be happy to welcome back those impacted.”

Back-to-back interest rate hikes in the US as well as the consecutive targeting of crypto players like Binance and Coinbase by the SEC in the US, have also acted as factors that slowed down the market momentum for cryptocurrencies in recent months. Currently, the overall cap of the crypto market stands at $1.05 trillion (roughly Rs. 86,80,402 crore), hanging by a thread to the psychologically significant trillion-dollar mark.

Earlier this month, India’s CoinDCX crypto exchange announced the layoff of 12 percent of its workforce, blaming the country’s tax regime for pushing investors away.

The crypto exchange, in its official statement, said that India’s TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) deductions on each crypto transaction has slowed down its business, especially during the ongoing bear market. A total of 71 people lost their jobs at CoinDCX during the recent round of layoffs.

On an international level, KuCoin, Binance, Genesis, and Huobi also laid off staff members between January and August this year succumbing to market pressure.

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CoinSwitch Ventures Says It’s Supporting Web3 Startups in India With Nearly $25 Million in Funding

CoinSwitch, a prominent player in India’s crypto space, has released a status update around its Web3 Discovery Fund, that was announced last year. The ventures arm of the crypto exchange claims to be helping Web3 startups in India with a subsequent funding of nearly $25 million (roughly Rs. 206 crore), according to a press release by the firm. At present, 12 startups are being supported by this fund. These up-and-coming blockchain firms include PYOR, Silence Labs, AirStack, Mohash, Shield, PolyTrade, BitsCrunch, and PlayZap among others.

The Web3 community in India is expanding under the shadowy lack of regulations established to rule the sector. India currently houses over 450 Web3 startups, out of which four are unicorns with valuations exceeding the mark of $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,267 crore). By around April last year, Indian Web3 startups had managed to rope-in $1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 10,700 crore) funding from national as well as international investors, as per a Nasscom report cited by the media.

Several new founders however, struggle to meet with the required financial resources in the initial stages of their projects, causing hurdles in the quality and completion of the initiatives.

As per Parth Chaturvedi, Investment Lead at CoinSwitch, the formation of this Web3 focussed fund last year was to enable early-stage startups to experiment with blockchain, crypto, and overall Web3 to solve real-world problems.

“Our aim is to build a bridge that enables Indian startups to have access to global capital, thereby facilitating the growth of the Indian Web3 ecosystem,” Chaturvedi said in a prepared statement. “Even in the bear market, we have seen a huge influx of innovative startup ideas.”

For now, the startups receiving financial aid from the CoinSwitch fund are working on projects around blockchain infrastructure, blockchain analytics, and real-world asset tokenisation.

To increase the financial aid to needy startups, CoinSwitch claims to be working on expanding its network of venture capitalists.

At present, CoinSwitch Venture’s Web3 Discovery Fund has up to 70 participants including over 100 startups with esteemed global investors, boasting prominent names like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.

While India remains sceptical towards accepting crypto with open arms, the country is intrigued about exploring the use-cases of the blockchain technology.

In January last year, NITI Aayog, India’s government-backed think tank, launched a blockchain module to help local developers explore the potential of the sector with experimental use-cases, trials, and errors.

“Blockchain is playing a crucial role in revolutionising business and redefining economies. It has the potential to unlock tremendous opportunities for the youth and this module will introduce students as young as grade six to the concepts of blockchain, which will help them in solving societal issues through its application. The module covers the basic aspects of blockchain and goes on to its case-based application in various industries,” Mission Director Chintan Vaishnav had said in a statement at the time.

Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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Crypto Firms Seek Refined Approach Towards Sector From Government, Pit India as Next Industry Hub

India’s contribution in the development of Web3, metaverse, and blockchain could increase multi-fold, if more Indians engaged with the digital assets sector, according to PayBito chief Raj Chowdhury. India’s current tax regime on the digital assets sector, Chowdhury believes, is restricting the growth potential of the sector in the country. In an appeal to India’s finance ministry, the crypto trading company chief has said that the 30 percent tax on crypto profits must be revisited and possibly slashed, now that the nation is just days away from getting its union budget for the fiscal year of 2023-2024.

“Cryptocurrencies have optimised transaction settlements in a way that has been embraced by MNCs, payment processing services, and expatriates sending earnings to their dear ones through remittance. The 30 percent crypto taxation slab has been detrimental to the growth of the crypto eco-system across India, with several exchanges withdrawing or setting up operations in crypto-friendly countries,” Chowdhury said in a statement.

Ashish Singhal, the CEO of Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch has also said that this year, India’s approach towards the crypto sector should be about ‘refinement’.

“India should incentivise users to stay within national jurisdiction by reducing the burden of taxes. The current tax regime and no provision to offset losses is making the markets illiquid, and investor sentiment is running low. Such circumstances push consumers’ money offshore into the grey markets, exposing them to regulatory issues,” Singhal told Gadgets 360.

In a subtle nod to the crypto sector, the Indian government announced last year that all profits churned from crypto trading activities will be taxed at 30 percent. In addition, at each step of the transaction, India deducts one percent TDS to maintain a trail of the crypto transactions, which can largely be facilitated anonymously.

Despite outcries from members of the crypto community, the government did not budge on its crypto tax decision.

“If the TDS aims to establish a trail of crypto transactions, it can be achieved by a lower TDS rate of 0.1 percent. Similar to listed securities, existing provisions of capital assets should be made applicable for VDAs. Thirdly, to make India a competitive country in the growing crypto industry, tax authorities should allow carrying forward and setting off losses incurred from the sale of VDAs, similar to how it is done for capital gains,” Singhal noted.

In its recent report, Indian research institution Esya had said that Indians shifted over $3.8 billion (roughly Rs. 30,916 crore) in trading volume from local to foreign crypto exchanges.

The same report had also highlighted those Indian exchanges lost 81 percent of their trading volumes as soon as the crypto taxes went live in India.

“Standardised crypto regulation frameworks can elevate India to the position of a global leader, but the current heavy-handed taxation needs to stop,” the PayBito chief said, urging the Indian finance ministry to expand the space for the crypto industry to thrive in India.

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India’s Giottus Crypto Exchange to Give ‘Proof of Reserves’, Rivals Keep Quiet

Giottus, an Indian crypto exchange, has taken a bold step to mark its impression in the crypto sector and make it to the headlines. Amid silence from rival crypto exchanges on the subject, Giottus has said that it will provide proof of reserves in order to add another layer of transparency to its business operations in the country. Proof of reserves are documents and evidence that demonstrate that a crypto exchange has sufficient assets to handle all withdrawals in cases of emergencies.

Digital currencies were slammed this week after the FTX crypto exchange was thrown into turmoil this month due to lack of liquidity.

The sequence of events slashed the total crypto market cap to $857.16 billion (nearly Rs. 69,27,325 crore) from its trillion-dollar valuation in the last two days, owing to bubbling sentiments of fear and distrust in the global crypto community.

Amid the chaos, Giottus has said that it was ready to provide proofs of internal finances to maintain the trust of its users.

“We are working on it. As a matter of fact, it’s high time, we all did. We should have something within the next three months. This is also an ideal point for regulators to start looking at providing proof of reserves from exchanges as part of their filings,” a Coindesk report quoted Giattus as saying.

The platform, founded in 2017, has agreed to publicly publish their fund reserves or do a ‘Merkle tree’ proof of reserves. The ‘Merkle tree’ proof is a cryptographic data structure that maintains privacy but allows users to verify the stability of their holdings on exchanges, thereby creating trust.

As of now, other Indian exchanges including CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX have not addressed their stance on providing proof of reserves.

India, by several industry experts, has been touted among the nations with most potential to explore and develop the crypto and Web3 technologies.

Johnny Lyu, the CEO of KuCoin crypto exchange, recently told Gadgets 360 that India is among the best producer of computer coders in the world and majority Indian engineers who are swarming towards Web3 are proficient in those computer languages that are required to tilt and shift the blockchain technology as we know it today.

India’s crypto activity churned $172 billion (roughly Rs. 13,85,800 crore) in cryptocurrency-related activities from July 2021 through the June of this year, a Chainalysis report released in September claimed.

A new crypto advocacy group called Bharat Web3 Association (BWA) has been launched in the country in a bid to monitor the growth and development of these nascent technologies.

Meanwhile, data oracle provider Chainlink has taken the opportunity to promote its proof-of-reserve tools.

The company claims this proofing could solve the transparency issues currently plaguing the industry.

Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article. 

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