Indian crypto founders not worried about competition from Coinbase, Binance

Indian crypto exchanges CoinDCX, Mudrex and Giottus said global rivals such as Coinbase, Binance and others entering India doesn’t worry them as this will only expand the market.

This comes on the heels of Binance, KuCoin registering with the Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) to set up shops in India, while Coinbase too is in talks to explore the market.

Speaking at the first edition of Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit in Mumbai on March 7, Sumit Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at CoinDCX said that not only will Indian crypto exchanges survive but also win as the intensifying competition from global peers would “create the market.”

Gupta said, “Let them set the field. But eventually, Indian domestic players 5-10 years down the line will have a dominant role to play in the system. I do believe that it's going to be a heavily regulated industry, eventually. And when regulations are there, then it's not easy to operate. Only the long-term seriously committed players essentially win the market.”

“If you look at the financial sector, which foreign company in India, have been able to have a significant market presence? None. None of the foreign banks have survived in India. None of the fintech players like Revolut have been able to gain a significant presence in India. The only exception is a company like Google Pay who has some presence and that too because of a lot of India angle,” he added.

Edul Patel, Co-founder of Mudrex concurred, adding, “What it takes to go from a small market to becoming a very large market is more players coming in and they come in when there is more clarity and that's exactly what we're seeing.”

“The clarity is improving which is prompting more and more larger global players to come in a market like India which is already known to be a very large market and then spend time, money and people educating the market and helping them understand what this asset class is about,” he said.

Family offices exploring

Not just retail investors, even family offices are showing a lot of interest to see whether they can have an exposure to crypto, said Vikram Subburaj, co-founder and CEO, Giottus.

“But yes, in India still, they're worried a bit about the regulatory front. There’s definitely a lot of people have started inquiring back again. Especially when ETFs came in, lot of family offices found it as a very good option to have an exposure to Bitcoin,” he said.

He added, “Within India though family offices have not invested in larger amounts, they're understanding the fact that this is an alternative asset, they should have it as some part of their portfolio. It's not a bigger portfolio, but they started experimenting.”