Crypto Boom in India: Despite Regulatory Concerns, Over 400 Startups Are Entering the Crypto Ecosystem

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Despite regulatory uncertainty and concerns from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India now has nearly 400 cryptocurrency-based startups offering various services to the crypto ecosystem.

According to data from Tracxn’s BusinessLine, there are 380 crypto start-ups and 12 non-fungible token-based (NFT) start-ups currently operating in the country. By industry players, in 2021 alone, at least 100 cryptocurrency start-ups were launched.

“There are a lot of start-ups that focus on creating new coins, supporting exchanges and the ecosystem, and some companies are building investor communities around crypto. These activities have been very strong this year. About 50 to 60 crypto start-ups saw the light of day in the past year, ”Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of the Unocoin cryptocurrency exchange, told this newspaper.

Crypto transactions took a break early last year when the RBI told banks not to make cryptocurrency-related payments. However, with the suspension of the RBI order by the Supreme Court, the crypto industry has grown significantly. Space startups saw their funding increase by 73% in the first six months of 2021 compared to all of 2020. Bengaluru-based crypto exchange, CoinSwitch Kuber and Mumbai-based CoinDCX, recently achieved unicorn ratings. The average investment per individual also fell from 6,000 to 8,000 a year or two ago.

“Protect, don’t forbid”

According to experts, policymakers should take into account the growing ecosystem while putting in place adequate regulations to protect investors.

Seeing the growth in this space, some entrepreneurs such as fintech founder Walrus, Bhagaban Behera, have entered the crypto market. Behera and her co-founders decided to launch a Defy social crypto exchange last week, where users can create their profiles and share their portfolios and investing ideas with friends and followers. “For India, the NFT crypto segment is quite nascent. We want to create simple software and eventually launch crypto mutual funds, credit cards, fixed deposits, a SIP plan, ”Behera said.

Growth of NFTs

The NFT segment is also slowly gaining ground and finding new formats.

There are all kinds of NFT start-ups coming from exchanges, start-ups creating APIs, tools, infrastructures to create NFTs, etc. There is a lot of FOMO around NFTs in the market and we think it will stay there for a while, ”Toshendra Sharma, Founder and CEO of NFTically told BusinessLine.

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