Indian Crypto Ecosystem Garnering International Attention Despite RBI Fiasco
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Indian Crypto Ecosystem Garnering 
International Attention Despite RBI Fiasco
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The Reserve Bank of India 
(RBI) in April 2018 released 
a circular prohibiting any 
banks from offering their 
service to crypto exchanges 
and any other 
crypto service providers. 
The banking ban had quite 
a devastating impact on the 
budding crypto ecosystem 
in the country. 
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Indian Crypto Exchanges Were Worst Hit by RBI's 
Circular
● India has been the IT outsourcing capital of the world despite failing to 
ride on the dot com boom in early 2ooos which is a glaring example of 
country's potential in being world leaders in the technology field.
● India also saw its first crypto exchange come up as early as 2013 in the 
form of UnoCoin and BTCXIndia. In subsequent years, especially after the 
2017 boom, India saw the launch of 15 new crypto exchanges and several 
other startups.
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● Right, when the Indian crypto community was gaining momentum the 
RBI circular ruined the ecosystem completely. 
● While the government's concern over the use of digital assets for illicit 
activities is understandable, however, RBI's response in the form of 
cutting the only source of liquidation for these services was cruel. 
● The trading volume on Indian exchanges prior to the RBI circular 
indicates Indian crypto ecosystem was thriving prior to the banking ban.
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Binance Eyeing Indian Market
● Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and an 
ecosystem known for expanding crypto reach is also eyeing India given its 
mammoth population and potential to become the crypto hub. 
● Binance recently acquired WazirX exchange which was a clear indication of 
Binance's long term plan of global expansion and how they view the Indian 
community. 
● The global crypto exchange has been eyeing South East Asian markets 
including India and China where it sees great potential in terms of user 
growth amid regulatory uncertainty in both the countries.
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Exchanges That Went Bust After the RBI Circular
● Many Indian Crypto-Exchanges tasted success in its early days and 
gained traction in 2017, but went bust due to the RBI's circular. We will 
look into some of the most prominent exchanges which had to either 
relocate or shut an established business.
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1. ZebPay 
● One of the most notable Indian exchanges which was founded in 
2014 and launched in 2015 and raised $1.1 million in two seed 
funding rounds. It was among the highest trading volume generators 
among Indian exchanges before it decided to shift its operations to 
Malta. The platform also boasts of over 3 million users worldwide.
● A recent email from the firm to its Indian customers suggested that 
the exchange is going to make a comeback in the coming months.
● ZebPay is estimated to generate around $68.9 million in annual 
revenue and a majority of its traffic still comes from India.
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2. Koinex
● Koinex, a Maharastra based crypto exchange which was founded in 
2017 announced its closure due to the banking ban in June 2019.
●  Koinex has managed to gain popularity in a very short period of time 
and was attracting a lot of Indian crypto traders on the platform. 
● The exchange was generating an estimated $1 million in annual 
revenue before it decided to shut down. 
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3. UnoCoin
● UnoCoin was established back in 2013 and is among the very first 
crypto trading platforms in India. The crypto exchange primarily 
offered Bitcoin through its platform and later added other crypto pairs 
to its trading list and even right before the unfortunate banking ban, 
the platform was registering almost 100 BTC worth of daily trading 
volume.
● The platform is not officially shut, however following the RBI notice it 
stopped deposit and withdrawals from the platform and is currently 
waiting for the verdict of the supreme court in the ongoing lawsuit 
filed against the RBI.
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● The platform is not officially shut, however following the RBI notice it 
stopped deposit and withdrawals from the platform and is currently 
waiting for the verdict of the supreme court in the ongoing lawsuit 
filed against the RBI. Cryptoknomics got in touch with Sathvik 
Vishwanath, the co-founder and CEO of the firm to get his views on 
the impact of RBI's circular. Vishwanath told,
"RBI is not a private business to take such unilateral decisions. It was 
to construct a panel with industry leaders, experts and policymakers 
to study the policies abroad and their similar applicability in our 
country before coming up with such knee jerk reaction."
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4. BTCXIndia
● BTCXIndia was also among the earliest Bitcoin exchanges in India 
which was founded in 2013 and was also considered among the 
most precautionary ones as it implemented KYC and AML 
regulations even when there was no necessity for such compliance. 
● The exchange also offered instant INR deposit and withdrawals 
before the RBI circular came in. The exchange had shut its operation 
back in 2018. Cryptoknowmics reached out to BTCXIndia for 
comments, but the founders refused to give their input as they 
haven't been following the ongoing Supreme Court hearing and have 
shifted their focus to other sectors.
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5. BuyUCoin
● BuyUcoin is among the first proper cryptocurrency exchanges in the 
country which offered digital Asset Exchange and Blockchain Wallet 
service and catered its services to more than 200,000 users at its 
peak. 
● The platform also boasted of handling more than $30m in 
transactions with digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, 
NEO, Bitcoin Cash, Dash.
● The firm had estimated yearly revenue of $1.4 million at its peak and 
although it's active today, the platform has lost the shine of its early 
days.
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● These are just a few crypto exchanges and service providers which 
were generating millions in direct revenue at their peaks before the 
RBI ban kicked in and forced them to either shut their business or try 
to survive without the banking facilities. 
● These exchanges and their numbers clearly indicate that India could 
have been a major force in the fintech industry by now if the central 
bank had taken the right approach.
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WazirX: The Indian Exchange Which Survived The 
Uncertainty
● WazirX was founded back in 2017 when the Bitcoin craze was at its 
peak, however, the exchange soon became the voice of the Indian 
crypto community with its #Indiawantscrypto campaign which drew 
attention from all around the globe. 
● Apart from running social media and public awareness campaign 
around cryptocurrencies, WazirX worked equally hard to ensure that 
it continues to help the Indian crypto community trade digital assets 
with ease and convenience.
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A Hopeful Future
● The stance of the central government towards digital assets looked 
quite passive in the past 2 years, however, the ongoing supreme 
court case has given a lot of confidence to the Indian crypto 
community. 
● The RBI vs Crypto case is one the verge of conclusion as both the 
counsels, RBI and IAMAI have concluded their argument in the 
hearing and judgement might arrive in the next 2-3 weeks.
● The Indian National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) has 
published a draft “National Strategy on Blockchain,” which unlike the 
draft bill has recommended regulations as the way to move forward. 
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● The report makes note of blockchain technologies, smart contract 
applications, challenges to blockchain adoption, the societal impact 
of the technology, the role of government, and national strategy 
principles. The report noted that the government authorities lacked 
clarity and awareness about blockchain technology.
"Government of India along with RBI come out with a Central Bank 
Digital INR (CBDR) administered over a public permissioned blockchain 
that processes transactions through a Turing complete virtual machine 
allowing decentralised applications to run on its platform."
Sources
https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/indian-crypto-ecosystem-
garnering-international-attention-despite-rbi-fiasco
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