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Indian cryptocurrency exchanges

IPL, India’s richest sports league, bans teams from signing crypto-based deals

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IPL or Indian Premier League was banned from taking part in crypto-related deals and associating themselves with cryptocurrency-based firms or exchanges. This order came from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which is the authority governing the sport.

As per a report by ET, the teams are upset with the decision taken by the BCCI, missing out on lucrative opportunities. The franchises received a lot of interest from cryptocurrency exchanges in the country for partnerships ahead of the coming T20 season.

Some of the IPL teams had started negotiations and were asked to keep the proceedings on hold until the government’s regulation of cryptocurrencies is clear after the winter session of the Parliament in which the crypto bill is set to be introduced.

IPL believes the decision a “major loss”

While the BCCI has completely banned IPL teams from signing deals with crypto exchanges, the International Cricket Council has no problem with the same, and this has irked many of the franchises.

“It’s a major opportunity loss. The kind of money they were offering for the main sponsorship was 1.5 times of what the current sponsor is paying. They wanted to build their brand with our association and were ready to pay for that.”

said an executive

Investors and firms are currently confused regarding the cryptocurrency bill, which will set foot on the floors of the Parliament this winter session. Sources said that the bill speaks on putting a ban on “private cryptocurrencies.”

India has the highest number of cryptocurrency investors (more than 100 million) and a huge number of cricket fans. Taking advantage of this, the top two cryptocurrency exchanges in the country were set to sign a 50 crore INR deal with the ICC for advertisement slots.

This is not the first time cryptocurrency exchanges have been targeted with scrutiny in the nation. A PIL was filed in the Delhi high court to ban the advertisement from exchanges that were accused of misleading the audience. While the advertisements were not banned, the Court made it compulsory for exchanges to add disclaimers in their adverts.

Crypto market crashes on Indian exchanges amidst ban FUD

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Amidst the huge regulators’ involvement and FUD, Indian crypto exchanges witnessed a sudden panic selling which resulted in a midnight crash dumping the dollar-linked stable coin tether (USDT) by 25% to nearly 60 Indian Rupees ($0.8061). This happened just after the news on the cryptocurrency bill went viral on Wednesday.

The global crypto market has started gaining some bullish momentum after around a 20% global drop in the past few weeks, but the Indian market saw something totally different.

The crash wasn’t just limited to Tether but also reflected on multiple top coins, including king coin Bitcoin (BTC), largest altcoin Ethereum (ETH), meme coins Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE), and Metaverse hero Sandbox (SAND).

The crypto price crash

The crash occurred soon after the so-called “government-funded” media channels created FUD around crypto. An interview on a local media channel even said that the only choice Indians have is to sell all their cryptocurrencies and never return back.

As per local sources, the Indian government is reportedly planning to roll out a bill seeking to ban private tokens while allowing specific exceptions to support blockchain technology.

The announcement of the bill came through the Parliament, which stated that the country would introduce and list 26 new bills, including the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, in the upcoming Winter session.

The bill seeks a legislative vote and discussion over creating an official virtual currency while banning “all private cryptocurrencies,” starting Monday.

The major sell-off on the Indian exchange platform WazirX this morning at 3:30 am UTC slipped the Bitcoin price by around 15%, from 4,600,000 rupees (around $61,800) to 3,917,659 rupees (around $52,600) within two hours. Other popular coins like Ethereum and Cardano also fell by double-digit losses on the exchange.

Statements from founders

Nischal Shetty, CEO of the WazirX, said that the Indian market usually trades above the global market. He added that the latest events might lead to Indian markets reaching the global market levels.

Bitcoin market CEO Caroline Bowler said that the current ban is for the short-term and would be a step backward. He added that banning could not protect investors.

India’s crypto exchanges shell out more than $6M in advertisements

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India’s top cryptocurrency exchanges dished out more than $6 million in advertisements and other promotional activities for the ICC World Cup Cricket tournament 2021. According to information provided by Tam Sports, India’s first crypto exchange unicorn CoinDCX was the biggest spender of all. It spent a total of over $5 million in broadcasting at least seven times in a single match, across all channels.

Out of 50 matches, sources from the first 42 revealed that the crypto exchange accounted for a 4% share in the total ad volume. On the other hand, its competitor CoinSwitch Kuber‘s ad expenditure tallied more than $1 million in total along with another domestic crypto exchange WazirX, who spent anywhere between $500K to $800K.

Interestingly, the Indian crypto exchange’s latest ad ‘blitz’ for the major sporting event is the first of its kind in the country. As per sources from the media, TV commercials by these digital exchanges have increased significantly in the last month. These developments may seem to have attracted a lot of attention from the government and the financial regulators who had unanimously voiced concerns against such ‘misleading’ advertisements and called for stricter curbs on such marketing tactics.

The news comes after India’s PM Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting just two days ago wherein, he engaged in detailed discussion with regards to bringing about sound regulations for the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector. According to government sources, authorities were particularly alarmed by an advertisement that claimed that crypto investments in the country reached a massive 600k crore.

India’s legal course

Several sources point towards the probability that the Indian government may approach the Advertising Standards Council of India [ASCI] to bring greater transparency and ‘stricter statutory warnings to accompany ads on digital currencies or their trading platforms.’

At present, there aren’t any legal arrangements for cryptocurrencies. But the recently concluded meeting of the government indicates that a regulatory framework may finally come into shape by December this year. Despite concerns raised by the regulatory entities, there has been a major shift, as witnessed from the government’s latest stance to bring a ‘progressive and forward-looking’ law on the whole sector. Nevertheless, the 2021 bull run has propelled retail investments to rise significantly despite the regulatory ambiguity.

Indian Cryptocurrency Exchanges Approach RBI for Regulatory Clarification

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In April 2018, the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) had placed a ban on cryptocurrency trading that restricted banks and other financial institutions from enabling cryptocurrency-related services. In March of this year, the Indian Supreme Court lifted Reserve Bank’s two-year ban on cryptocurrency trading in India for what many said was a historic verdict.

After the Supreme Court verdict, many statistics showed that a growing number of Indians were interested in cryptocurrency trading, and many exchanges saw an increase in trading volume.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have now approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as stated by The Economic Times, and sought clarification on their status and domestic tax within the country. Crypto exchanges wrote to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking clarification as financial institutions refused to provide the financial services they wanted because of a lack of clarity on the part of the regulators, The Exchanges have requested clarity on the platform’s categorization as commodity, currency, goods, or service that defines whether they are paid under the Good and Services Tax (GST).

Praveenkumar Vijayakumar, Chairman & CEO of Belfrics Global, was reported as saying:

“If the digital assets are not exempted from GST, the digital currency exchanges in India are going to have a standoff with the tax authority. In early 2019, the tax department had reached out to several cryptocurrency platforms in this regard. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling, we have also approached the RBI for clarity on this, as if we pay GST on the whole transaction, then most platforms would not be able to survive,”

In the background, it is claimed that the indirect tax department which collects GST has initiated preliminary discussions on how cryptocurrencies could be brought within the scope of the GST. A few years earlier, the sales tax department and VAT authorities had also launched an investigation into Bitcoins‘ taxability. The indirect tax department also launched an investigation into Bitcoin exchanges operating in India to assess the rate of GST that could be imposed on them.

“After the supreme court judgment, the RBI was supposed to issue a new circular directing the banks to start banking relationships again with cryptocurrency exchanges and businesses. When the Crypto exchanges approached banks to start operations the banks simply denied as they had not received any notification from the RBI till date,” said Sidharth Sogani, CEO, CREBACO Global. “Banks cannot deny the service after the Supreme Court judgment, they are just playing safe as banks will always be anti-Bitcoin, but because of this huge potential is getting sacrificed.”

 

Indian Cryptocurrency Exchange CoinDCX Raises Millions in Latest Investment Round

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Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market have tried their best to become mainstream after a decade of their inception. This growing financial sector has become so important that regions around the world have begun to rethink their applications.

India was one of the few countries vehemently opposed to cryptocurrencies. The ban on cryptocurrency has been so effective that digital asset companies have been brought to the ground while many have relocated. Following the recent withdrawal of the ban by the Supreme Court of India, the country has seen a dramatic increase in the number of crypto investors.

CoinDCX was one of the few Indian cryptocurrency exchanges that were ramping up efforts to expand Indian cryptocurrency space. According to new reports, the exchange raised more than $3 million from investors in its most recent funding round. CoinDCX claimed that the new space investors were excited to form an ecosystem of change, innovation, and rapid progress.

According to sources, CoinDCX raised more than $3 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures, Polychain Capital and HDR Global Trading. HDR Global Trading sounds familiar because it is involved in operating cryptocurrency exchanges like the popular BitMEX.

The sudden surge in investments started right after the Indian Supreme Court adjudged that the 2018 ban on crypto was unjust. According to the premier court in the country, the RBI’s stance on digital assets would hamper growth and development in the country. Sumit Gupta, the CEO and Co-founder of CoinDCX stated:

“As the country’s largest exchange, we are in a position to drive national crypto adoption forward responsibly. This successful investment round will go a long way in funding our vision of accelerating India’s growth into a US$5 trillion economy. With a slew of exciting projects in the pipeline, the closure of our Series A is the first step in a new chapter in the CoinDCX story as we continue to drive the mass adoption of crypto assets in India.”

CoinDCX stated that it would use the capital to revamp its marketing aspects as well as boost its product developments. Sumit Gupta added that cryptocurrency as an asset was just about to take off in the country. India stands in the perfect position to leverage the current market and draw attention to the changes in the space, said Sumit Gupta. CoinDCX was one of three Indian cryptocurrency exchanges that remained open during the ban and it looks like it paid dividends.

The exchange will allow more users to get on board by buying cryptocurrencies with fiat. One of the USP’s of CoinDCX has been its algorithm-based trading that has enabled users to make seamless transactions. The good news was in complete contrast to the situation in 2018 when the industry crumbled in India after RBI’s decision. CoinDCX has also pledged $1.3 million for a campaign called ‘TryCrypto’. The aim of the program is to increase the number of crypto users in India to 50 million.

The CoinDCX development came right after Tim Draper made glowing comments about the Supreme Court’s decision. The serial investor admitted that he would be interested in contributing to some of the great projects in India and boost the cryptocurrency space.