New Delhi: Singapore-based virtual wallet Coinstore began operations in India at a time when the Indian government was preparing laws to effectively block most private cryptocurrencies.
Coinstore has launched its web and app platform and plans to have offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai to serve as the base in India for future expansion, management said.
“With almost a quarter of our total active users from India, it made sense for us to expand into the market,” Charles Tan, director of marketing at Coinstore, told Reuters.
When asked why Coinstore launched India despite the impending crackdown on cryptocurrencies, Tan said, “There have been political flip flops but we hope things will turn out positive and we are optimistic that the Indian government will unite will provide a healthy framework for cryptocurrencies. “
The New Delhi government plans to discourage cryptocurrency trading by levying large capital gains and other taxes, two sources told Reuters earlier this month.
According to a legislative agenda for the winter session due to begin later this month, only certain cryptocurrencies will be allowed to promote the underlying technology and its uses.
Tan said Coinstore plans to hire approximately 100 people in India and spend $ 20 million on marketing, hiring and developing crypto-related products and services for the Indian market.
Coinstore is the second global exchange to have entered India in the past few months, following in the footsteps of CrossTower, which launched its local entity in September.
The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has more than doubled since the beginning of this year and is attracting hordes of Indian investors.
Industry estimates suggest that there are 15 to 20 million crypto investors in India, with total crypto holdings of around 400 billion rupees ($ 5.33 billion). Also read: BGMI update: Krafton introduces 3 hour game time limit, check other restrictions
According to Tan, Coinstore also plans to expand into Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam. Also read: Microsoft’s GitHub is facing a major outage! Service back online after 2 hours of interruption
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