CrossTower, one of the world’s leading trading platforms and digital asset investment firms launched its crypto trading platform in India on September 7. The US headquartered company plans to tap into the growing crypto market in India. According to Chainalysis – a blockchain data platform – the Indian crypto market was valued at $923 million in April 2020 and then grew to $6.6 billion in May 2021, an average of over 50 percent monthly growth.
“India will play a pivotal role and we plan to use the country as a hub to expand into other geographies,” Kapil Rathi, co-founder and CEO of CrossTower, told Reuters.
The trading platform, in a statement, said that it has been methodically built on a robust, scalable, and resilient infrastructure with best-in-class safeguards, services, and capabilities. As a late entrant into the Indian market, the company hopes to increase its market share through its competitive pricing. It further stated, “Besides offering competitive pricing for its users, the company also uses sophisticated compliance infrastructure and top security measures to protect customers. As a part of its launch, CrossTower is offering its first 1,000 Indian customers an opportunity to earn extra Bitcoin up to ₹500 on their first trade on the exchange.”
The Chainanalysis report also ranked India 11th in cryptocurrency adoption among 154 nations. The company has hired 35 people and plans to increase the headcount to 100 in the next six to nine months.
“For India, CrossTower has built a business that permits everyone, from young adults to business tycoons, making investing in cryptocurrency the easiest and safest. Any individual in any village, town or city in the country can start cryptocurrency trading with the trusted CrossTower platform using Indian rupees and access over 40 cryptocurrencies (tokens),” the company said.
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Concern Of Potential Ban Not A Setback
The much-awaited legislation, the Cryptocurrency Bill, aimed at regulating virtual currency in India is yet to come into effect. According to the key bulletin prepared for the Budget Session by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the bill proposes the “creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.” The bill also “seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India”, but it would permit “certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses”. Various reports have stated that the inter-ministerial panel has recommended that all private cryptocurrencies, except any virtual currencies issued by the state, will be prohibited in India.
According to Reuters, despite the uncertain future of cryptocurrencies in India, global digital currency exchanges still continue their plans to set up camp in India out of fear that they may miss out. Many of these companies have followed in the footsteps of market leader Binance, which entered India in 2019 by acquiring WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency platform that enabled users to trade crypto with rupees on the Binance Fiat Gateway.
With the Cryptocurrency Bill experiencing delay and the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans and the central bank planning to launch its own cryptocurrency by December, CrossTower’s Rathi said, “We believe we are taking a calculated risk.”
