Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX’s co-founders, Nischal Shetty, and Siddharth Menon have reportedly moved to Dubai with their families, as per local sources. At present, the trading platform continues to operate from its headquarters in Mumbai.
A representative of the firm denied rumors of shifting its headquarters from India saying that all employees of the cryptocurrency exchange, are working remotely. Another co-founder and chief technology officer Sameer Mhatre continue to operate from India, the report said.
“We are a remote-first organization with employees in over 70 locations. This gives all the company employees the option to work from anywhere, subject to their comfort and convenience unless they are required to travel officially.
WazirX is headquartered in Mumbai and there is no change in any of our operating procedures. It is business as usual,” the WazirX spokesperson told CNBC-TV18.
Sources earlier hinted that Shetty and Menon would be stepping down from the active daily operations at WazirX to focus on new projects.
WazirX founders set sights on Web3
A few months ago, Shetty announced he was working on a sharded layer 1 blockchain project called ‘Shardeum with US-based crypto innovator Omar Sayed. At the same time, Menon said he too would be launching Tegro, a Web3 game ecosystem marketplace, with game development firm SuperGaming.
But one cannot ignore the fact that India’s stiff crypto tax and hostile banks in contrast to the crypto-friendly nations such as Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, and the Cayman Islands have pivoted domestic crypto businesses to shift their base. With Dubai being the nearest one, many Indian-based entrepreneurs, developers, and engineers thus see it as a viable alternative.
In a previous report by TronWeekly, Shetty has warned earlier how India stands to lose homegrown talent and miss out on the Web3 revolution. He then urges the govt, to reconsider its stance on digital assets
Four years ago, crypto exchanges ZebPay and Vauld moved to Singapore. Other firms like Polygon too, shifted to Dubai, while Mudrex set up shop in the US in 2019. Shilpa Mankar Ahluwalia, Partner and Head-FinTech at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co told,
“The lack of clarity on what the crypto regulatory framework will look like is making investors rethink their decision to make India the base for launching crypto platforms and products.”