Talks on with govt over crypto regulations, CoinSwitch Kuber CEO says

The cryptocurrency industry is in talks with the Indian government and regulators to assuage their concerns about the sector, according to India's largest crypto exchange.

CoinSwitch Kuber, which is backed by Tiger Global, Sequoia and Coinbase Ventures, has about 10 million users on its exchange -- and about half of them are around their mid-20s, according to co-founder and chief executive officer Ashish Singhal. The bourse is in a question-and-answer phase with regulators and has made "amazing progress," he said.

"Regulators are engaging with industry leaders like us and industry bodies and trying to understand cryptocurrencies -- and we do understand the stance of the government," Singhal said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. "There are some fundamental flaws in the crypto ecosystem which do not abide by the laws of the land in India," he added.


India has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the asset class in the past few years. In 2018, the country effectively banned crypto transactions after a string of frauds following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden decision to eliminate 80% of the nation’s currency, but the Supreme Court struck down the restriction in March 2020.

Now, the Reserve Bank of India is working on a digital currency and the government may bring in a crypto bill for cabinet approval. India's crypto market expanded 640% in the 12 months through June, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

“The idea is not to shut crypto down, but how to plug those holes. Crypto can be the next Internet itself and India would not definitely want to miss out on that,” Singhal said.

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