MC Exclusive: India has always been an important market, seeing huge rise in institutional queries, says Binance’s Vishal Sacheendran

Edited excerpts:

It’s been nearly six months since Binance re-entered India with a dedicated India entity. Have all the Indian users from the global entity transitioned?

It didn't have much of a difference in terms of our current users. Our new user registrations were stopped earlier. We were still allowed to serve our current users and it has continued to grow since.

I think we worked well with the regulatory authorities in India and they were understanding of what we bring to the table as long as we were registered and we did it the right way.

From a user's perspective, it just gave them a lot more assurance that now Binance is registered with the FIU in India and it has been growing since.

Have you set up an office and team in India? Are you hiring here?

We're still operating as an offshore entity. The regulations allow for an offshore entity to operate in India. So it works well for us. We haven't set up an office or hired anyone locally here yet.

What’s the India opportunity and gameplan like for Binance?

India has always been an important market. How the regulations play out for global exchanges such as ours was the key concern. Once we understood what FIU's key concerns were for us. We spoke to the regulators, understood their issues, worked with them on how we can mitigate those risks that they see…Once we did all that, we had to change a little bit on the KYC understanding, and the different IDs that we can use to on board our Indian clients. Once we figured all that, we came back in. We were the first ones to come back in a really quick time.

It’s important to understand that at no point did Binance ever consider leaving India. It was just a small pause while we figured things out with the regulators.

Beyond the exchange services, what other global products are you offering in India? Also, what’s the pipeline in terms of products to be launched in the country?

I don't think there are any restrictions on any of the products that Binance offers globally within India. And that was something that FIU was extremely happy about. We were offering in India everything that's available on the platform globally. We have continued to do it. We had no restrictions whatsoever put in by the regulators.

In terms of product launches, I can't speak too much into what is planned over the next couple of months but they're always going to be exciting products for our users.

What’s been the Trump impact like on crypto globally? Will this be positive for India?

Geopolitically, there are a lot of factors that have affected crypto prices over the years, be it a decline in prices during wartime, be it an uplift during results of elections.

This is the beauty of the fact that crypto is now mimicking what traditional financial services are seeing. Earlier you could see crypto and traditional financial services or stocks and equities going in different directions. Now, they're all going towards the same trajectory, the same events that affect financial markets globally, affect crypto markets globally as well. In essence, it has become a part of the financial services fabric.

The second thing was the legitimacy that the regulators gave the crypto industry when they approved Bitcoin ETFs. That was huge. That actually brought institutional investors into the game.

Before, the entire crypto market was retail play. People understand crypto, NFTs and all that kind of stuff. They are the ones who were in the game. But when you had your spot ETFs being approved by regulators, you're suddenly an asset class that any investment manager has a fiduciary duty to tell the clients that there's this new product out there that if you have a higher risk appetite, it's open for you. That gave the spurt in growth you saw throughout the year from March onwards.

The US elections then had a positive spin. Some of the other countries already were open to crypto and they were licensing and regulating the industry with different players, global players, local players in them.

A lot of the other countries were getting to that point like Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) went live towards the end of the year. A lot of the other countries were on a wait and watch approach too, like India itself.

The US had its effect. Other countries who did not make a move and they wanted to see how the US would react to this. Now that they see the positive impact the crypto industry has had since the elections, they're going to roll with it as well.

They're going to see what kind of regulations and frameworks the US comes up with and try to copy it. But it's definitely been good for the investors.

How have your interactions with the Indian government been so far in terms of regulatory discussions, adoption and mindset? What has been your reading of the approach here versus other regions like Dubai and the US?

Well, at least the Indian government never blocked it. That was a good start. They understand innovation is fast, innovation is heavy. India was one of the first countries when the whole fintech boom happened.

India has never shied away from the innovative side of things. It was just that crypto was a new industry. It was a nuanced industry that they had to understand a lot better to let people delve into it.

In India, at least the communities that I've come across in the crypto space, they understand the product, crypto and blockchain.

I have never seen more deeper entities in any other part of the world that I've seen in India. This is a brand new innovative technology.

When I was in India and meeting the community, the amount of deeptech infrastructures that are out there, it's unreal. You have a huge talent pool. You cannot avoid it.

Companies will tap into that talent pool at some point. India just got so much room to grow. India has done the right thing in allowing for the players to come in, understanding what they do, understanding the market, the asset class, and then try to build a regulatory framework that does best for everyone involved.

Are Indian crypto trading trends aligning with the ongoing global bull run? Or are the sentiments still subdued on ground given the WazirX hack last year? 

Well, I don't think there was any slowing down from the hack. Again, it's down to how much do you trust your exchange. How much do you trust any, doesn't matter if it's Binance or any other, any of our other competitors out there.

So I don't think it slowed us down in any shape or form with the WazirX hack. It continued to grow and the volumes are in line with what we see globally.

Are you seeing institutional investments or participation for crypto in India?

We're seeing a huge uptick in institutional enquiries. We have different programs for that.

We have VIP programs. And we're seeing a different uptick in institutional operating accounts where they want to hold on to crypto. They want to make an investment, maybe as a fund manager, or an asset manager.

But there is a huge, huge, huge rise in that. That's not just India, but that's globally as well. We're going to see that continue to grow.

You’ll see a lot more hedge funds coming into play, a lot more crypto funds being created. And it's just a very exciting time for the industry.

What was your takeaway from the recent budget session, obviously there wasn’t much for the crypto sector?

We are still working through it. We're still working with our consultants around it, and we haven't formed an opinion yet. But I think there is a lot of room for improvement.

We continue to engage with the policymakers and stakeholders. This is a very nuanced and young industry. India is a huge country with a huge population -- a huge young population.

Mobile and internet penetration is extremely high. In crypto adoption too, India is one of the top one or top two countries in the world.

So if you are not fostering that appetite, then you are in essence trying to kill that industry in your country. That's not something that either the government or the users want. So I'm sure they'll continue to work with the industry and grow it and the different industry associations that are out there.

There are talks of India’s crypto discussion paper getting further delayed and some of the founders are expecting the regulatory entities proposed will be different for crypto, bitcoins and stablecoins, similar to the US. What are your expectations from the discussion paper?

We are all waiting for it. If you look at the majority of the crypto regulations that have come out now, be it what we have in the Middle East, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain -- all have very similar crypto frameworks.

MiCA regulations in Europe are a little more nuanced, but it comes down to the activity. The regulatory framework has to revolve around the activity of the crypto player.

If you're an exchange, get regulated as an exchange. If you're a broker dealer, get regulated as such. That's how typical financial services entities are regulated. The underlying asset can be whatever it is.

You get regulated for the activity and you create risk mitigants around the risk that these assets pose to you.

You have to create a very comprehensive framework that covers all angles and is a bit agile so you can if there's an uptick in the innovation then you can fix it again very quickly and move on.

There were reports of WazirX being in talks with Binance for a possible bail out. Are the talks still on? What’s the update there?

Those talks are on, but I don't think there's much progression there. The talks are still going on between the legal sides of things.

I don't think there is a possibility of takeover on the table, but all I can tell is we're trying to find the best solutions possible for the users. We will continue to see what happens.

We assist every time there's a hack in any part of the world with any crypto exchange. Our law enforcement team assists them straight off the bat. Last year, we recovered close to $100 million in hacked funds with our security team. So that's a pretty huge thing.

So we work with the law enforcement teams of whichever country that they've been hacked, and we work with the exchange itself to track the funds. We help any exchange that’s been hacked, WazirX or whoever it is.

Whenever you have a hack in the crypto industry, the reputation of the industry takes a hit. And our job is to maintain the sanctity of the industry.

What are going to be the key business focus areas for Binance over the next 2-3 years in India?

Education is going to be key for me. We continue to build that pipeline of working with players. Be it the users, government agencies, universities or our partners or the institutional players looking to enter the game, we need to educate them.

We want to make sure people understand what they're investing into. Don't just follow a hype or a trend. Understand the token that you're investing into and learn about it.

We also want to continue building our products. Hopefully at some point, once we understand what the regulatory framework is going to look like, we want to set up shop.

We want to hire locally. We want to build the talent locally.