India attracts $638 million in crypto, blockchain investments in 2021

New Delhi: Despite the uncertainty around virtual currencies in India, the country attracted crypto funding and blockchain investments worth $638 million across 48 funding rounds in 2021, according to data shared with ET by industry tracker Tracxn.

Globally, funding for crypto and blockchain investments stood at $24,857 million across 930 funding rounds.


Also read:2021 Year in Review | Defining moments in India’s crypto saga this year

India’s crypto market grew 641% from July 2020 to June 2021, helping turn a region spanning central and southern Asia and Oceania into one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, according to a Chainalysis report from October.

The government was twice set to introduce a crypto bill seeking to ban “all private cryptocurrencies” this year before backing out. Meanwhile, demand for these digital assets has exploded across the country amid the pandemic, and especially in 2021.

In August, Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX raised $90 million (about Rs 668 crore) in its Series C round, led by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital.

This year, Sequoia India doubled down on its investment in CoinSwitch Kuber and also invested in crypto treasury management platform Coinshift.

Crypto exchanges have been using the unprecedented funding to expand their operations and splash out on advertising, especially during the T20 World Cup. In July, two advocates filed a public interest litigation against crypto exchanges WazirX, Coinswitch Kuber and CoinDCX, asking that India’s capital markets regulator issue guidelines and take steps against such advertisements that run without standard disclaimers.

In August, about half a dozen cryptocurrency exchanges and one intermediary in India said they had decided to refrain from launching fresh advertisements in print and on television and radio in the wake of concerns voiced by the government and the parliamentary panel on finance.