CoinDCX IPO: India's first cryptocurrency unicorn plans to go public

Cryptocurrency (Representative image)

CoinDCX, India's first cryptocurrency unicorn, plans to go public as soon as Indian regulations allow it, said co-founder Neeraj Khandelwal.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Khandelwal said that CoinDCX IPO would boost confidence in India's 'digital asset industry'.

"As soon as the government or the situation allows us, we will try for an IPO. An IPO gives legitimacy to the industry, just like the Coinbase IPO gave a lot of confidence in the crypto markets. Similarly, we want to instil a similar level of confidence with an IPO of CoinDCX," Khandelwal said, as quoted by Bloomberg.

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The cryptocurrency exchange was valued at $1.1 billion in August when it raised $90 million in a funding round led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s fund B Capital. Its existing investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Block.one, Jump Capital and others also invested.

Khandelwal said that the company would decide on the IPO timeline depending on government regulations.

"The bill coming up at this juncture signals progress and acknowledgement from the government side of the growing investor base for crypto," Khandelwal added, as per the report.

Also read | No proposal to recognise Bitcoin as currency: FM Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament

The government plans to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021 in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.

The Bill seeks to ban all but a few private cryptocurrencies to promote underlying technologies while allowing an official digital currency by RBI.

Besides its main exchange catering to retail investors, CoinDCX also provides trading and lending services for enterprise customers, traders, has a global trading platform and blockchain academy for education. CoinDCX had in August said it has 3.5 million users.

Another crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber turned unicorn last month when it raised over $260 million led by new investors Coinbase Ventures and top Silicon Valley fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), taking its valuation to $1.9 billion.

Also read: Decoding the surge of cryptocurrency trading