‘Crypto today is where mutual funds were in 1995’: BitDelta India CEO on digital assets and their role in your portfolio

Few people in India have sold three different asset classes to sceptical, first-time investors. Vikaas M. Sachdeva is one of them. Now Chief Executive Officer of BitDelta India, a crypto exchange, he describes himself as among the first in the country to make the leap from mutual funds and portfolio management into crypto. Sachdeva began in merchant banking in the mid-1990s, handling a flood of Initial Public Offers (IPOs). He went on to hold senior business development roles at global asset managers and later led a domestic asset management company. He later ran a Portfolio Management Service (PMS) firm and another investment business before heading a large Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). Each shift, he says, opened a new investor universe, from Rs.500 Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) to Rs.5 crore ticket sizes. Crypto was an asset class he first refused. But later he concluded that it simply needed evangelising, much as mutual funds did in 1995. In an interview with ET Wealth, Sachdeva also discusses if India’s regulatory framework is moving in a positive or negative direction.

RAPID FIRE

Q.Market call you are most proud of?


The IT sector in the early 2000s.

Q.Bitcoin at $200,000, crazy prediction or realistic target?

Realistic target.

Q.How did you explain mutual funds to investors in the 90s?

Hamara Tumhara fund.

Q.One personality trait that helps you in the market?

Not taking myself too seriously

Q.30 years in the market, what still scares you?

Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, the market humbles you

Q.From mutual funds to PMS to crypto, what’s the next stop?

I believe I have started in crypto and have a long way to go.

Q.How would you explain Bitcoin to a mutual fund investor?

The internet of money.

Vikaas M. Sachdeva

Chief Executive Officer, BitDelta India

You’ve spent over three decades in asset management, starting with mutual funds when they were relatively new in India, then running a mutual fund business, moving to PMS, then alternative investments, and now crypto. How do you explain this journey?

I’ve been lucky, but there’s a thread running through all of it. I keep arriving at asset classes just as India is about to discover them. I got into mutual funds in 1995-96, straight out of merchant banking; mutual funds awareness at the time was negligible. People wouldn’t let me into their offices. At one point, the receptionist assumed AMC referred to an Annual Maintenance Contract, which was how I ended up being allowed in. What I did back then was evangelise, where I explained a misunderstood product patiently until people trusted it. I did it again for PMS, for alternatives, for private credit. So when crypto came my way, my first answer was actually no. But once I started reading and talking to people, I realised a vibrant ecosystem, a lot of intellectual capital, and a huge trust-and-education gap. Crypto doesn’t need more noise. It needs evangelising, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.

Why move into an industry where the regulatory framework is still developing?

This is the biggest myth about crypto. It is not unregulated; it is differently regulated. By 2022-23, the VDA (virtual digital asset) ecosystem in India had already developed inorganically, with markets, trading activity and service providers emerging ahead of a formal regulatory framework. The next significant policy intervention came in March 2023, when VDA service providers were brought within the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) framework through Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating or Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) obligations. BitDelta India is registered with FIU-IND as a virtual digital asset service provider. AML, KYC, reporting norms, all are firmly in place and running. There may not be one single market regulator like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) yet, but that is not the same as ‘no rules.’ India’s journey has been less of a regulatory scramble and more of a gradual effort to put the necessary foundations in place before a comprehensive market framework takes shape.

Is crypto misunderstood today?

There is a clear parallel. Crypto today is where mutual funds were in 1995-96. Every major asset class in India has walked the same road. Early access, fragmented understanding, and then broad participation once education catches up. Equities did it. Mutual funds did it. Crypto is now at that same turn. The compliance guardrails already exist. What’s missing is the market structure built on top of them, and the education underneath. Get those two right, and this industry doesn’t just grow, it takes off.

What misconception did you have about crypto when you first encountered it?

The same one the common man has, that crypto is inherently questionable, because all the news you encounter tends to focus on the negative developments. Before I joined, I mentioned the move to a respected voice in traditional finance, and his reaction was a ‘half-second pause’ and ‘I’ll pray for you.’ That tells you the perception. If you come from a regulated world, what else would you assume? But the moment I actually looked under the hood, the misconception fell apart. This is a serious ecosystem with serious people. The problem isn’t the asset; it’s the awareness gap. Awareness of virtual digital assets in India is still below 15%. That gap is exactly why we launched CrypTution, our structured crypto learning and certification platform. If understanding is the problem, education is the product.

Conventional mutual fund managers and investors usually avoid crypto. How will you bridge this gap?

By bringing traditional finance discipline into crypto, and by making education the foundation of everything we do. That’s what CrypTution is. It’s India’s first structured, institution-grade learning and certification ecosystem for virtual digital assets, built with American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM) India, who’ve trained over a lakh finance professionals across three decades.

What does your personal portfolio look like today?

The most significant development for me has been the newest one, I have now started investing through a daily crypto SIP. That may sound like a small thing, but it’s deliberate. I don’t chase crypto; I accumulate it with discipline, a little every day, exactly the way we taught India to invest in mutual funds through SIPs. I stick to the most liquid, most established coins rather than fashionable ones. And I’m clear that this is an emerging allocation for me, not the bulk of my wealth, yet. But I promise you it will grow, because I believe a major wave is coming.

Are Indian family offices and High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) allocating money to crypto, or still studying the asset class?

Both, but the direction is clear. Today, it’s small sums, with a little capital being allocated and held quietly. I’d say we’re about a year from an inflection point, when crypto investing really comes into its own. Right now, the conversation is mostly about trading; investing as a disciplined, long-term allocation is the next chapter. What tips it over is a few success stories and a lot more informed conversation. That’s why we are so focused on education and certification. An HNI who understands the asset allocates with far more conviction than one who’s guessing. Confident participation is educated participation.

What will bring the next 10 crore Indian investors into crypto?

Two things. Institutional adoption and reach beyond the metros. Globally, institutions move first, and retail follows. Look at how quickly the big global Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) have pulled in money, that’s the signal. As that institutional comfort arrives in India, retail participation follows with far more confidence.

But the next 10 crore won’t come only from the big cities. Nearly 40% of India’s crypto users already come from Tier II/III towns. We took mutual funds from a few Mumbai offices to a Rs.500 SIP in every small town. Crypto has to travel the same road, and it will, one educated pocket at a time.

Are India’s regulations moving in a positive or negative direction?

Take the noise out and look at the last five or six years, the direction has been positive. Most of the public debate gets stuck on taxation, but tax is just one aspect. Take the word ‘crypto’ out for a moment and look at blockchain and tokenisation. A great deal is already happening in India. Those foundations are being laid right now. And the world is moving in the same direction, with the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act in the US, and regulatory frameworks in the UK, Japan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. There’s a gradual global acceptance that crypto is here to stay. India’s approach is different: we understand regulation deeply, so we have led with it—regulation first, market structure to follow. I’d argue that’s the more mature path. (Note: The US enacted the GENIUS Act in 2025 to regulate payment stablecoins, while broader crypto-market legislation under the CLARITY Act remains pending. India, meanwhile, is still building its regulatory framework for crypto assets.)

Who should regulate crypto: RBI, SEBI or the finance ministry?

Broadly, RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is most concerned with stablecoins, and much of the rest sits naturally closer to a markets regulator like Sebi. What I don’t think works is two regulators pulling in different directions. My instinct is that the answer might look like a blended regulator like GIFT City’s IFSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority), with the best minds across regulators coming in.

Where does crypto fit in the traditional equity-debt-gold-real estate framework? What should an ideal investor allocate to crypto?

With discipline, and I say this wearing my risk manager’s hat, which I never take off. Crypto has had a strong run over the last decade, and it tends to draw attention because of that. But past performance is never a guide to the future, and this is a volatile, high-risk asset. The temptation is always to over-allocate on the back of a good run. Resist it.

So, my guidance is deliberately conservative: start with a small sliver of your portfolio, sized so that even if it went to zero you’d sleep at night, and let that exposure grow only as your understanding grows.