India’s Cryptocurrency Sector Needs ‘Peace’ and ‘Certainty’: CoinSwitch CEO

CoinSwitch CEO Ashish Singhal on Sunday called for clearer rules to resolve the regulatory uncertainty in India's cryptocurrency space.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Singhal told Reuters: “Users don't know what will happen with their holdings—is the government going to ban, not ban, how is it going to be regulated? Regulations will bring peace ... more certainty”

Bengaluru-based CoinSwitch, the largest crypto platform in India with over 18 million users, is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures.

In February, about a week after a 30% tax on crypto was proposed, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, said that private cryptocurrency was “a big threat to our macroeconomic stability and financial stability.”

“Keep in mind,” he added at the time, “that cryptocurrency has no underlying value—not even a tulip.”

Just last month, two major crypto exchanges in India were halted because of regulatory uncertainty.

No official data is available on the size of India's crypto market, but a CoinSwitch estimate provided to Reuters said about 20 million investors had total holdings of roughly $6 billion.

“We are pushing for regulations,” Singhal said at Davos. “With the right regulation, we can get the clarity.”