CoinDCX CEO shares insights on India’s crypto journey amid regulatory challenges and future outlook
Updated – December 25, 2023 at 09:43 AM.
The Indian crypto industry has thrived a challenging year in the ongoing market downturn and repercussions of regulatory moves. Sumit Gupta, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX spoke to businessline on the journey of the industry this year, and expectations going forward. Edited excerpts
Sumit Gupta, CEO of CoinDCX
How would you describe the journey of the industry in 2023?
In the last year, the industry has proven India is a large market, leading in grassroots adoption. Despite the tough environment, India has continued to grow and drive adoption even at a global level. The view for the industry in the last couple of years, when considered, has not been very positive; the industry had to strive through the introduction of taxation in India and the global occurrence of FTX. Throughout trading, volumes have dipped, and most of it has been moved to offshore exchanges, resulting in a struggle for domestic exchanges, leaving them a small market share to cater to.
How has the regulatory landscape changed this year?
The government has been very vocal about Web3 technologies in the past year and actively engages in conversations to understand the sector. With trading volumes shifting to offshore exchanges, the government is also cognizant of this, and hopefully, there will be action. The industry would have loved to see more traction and support towards the growth of Web3 technology in India along with other newer tech like Artificial Intelligence(AI). The industry still expects the government to be lenient on the taxation so domestic exchanges get a level playing field.
Has the interest of global players to tap into India increased?
India is a very attractive market for global players and has been one of their focus regions. With its young demographic and access to technology, India is a crucial market and tops the charts in many metrics measuring on-chain activity. India is a large market and a growing category, as long as global players are tapping into the market and adhering to the laws and regulations of the land, it is welcomed. However, even as they continue to operate, Indian companies will always have an edge as we understand the region’s diversity.
How do you see the growth momentum of new Web3 projects shaping up?
The quality of Web3 projects has improved, and all the entrants to the industry are motivated by the right reasons and are in to build for the long term rather than entering the space because it is in a hype cycle. We also see people considering building applications, and looking at non-financial use cases such as tokenization. With global regulation shaping up well, a lot of activity can be expected to see solutions for usability as infrastructure and scalability have already been solved.