CoinSwitch Kuber, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, announced Wednesday that it raised more than $260 million and was valued at $1.9 billion. This underlines the popularity of crypto trading even though government policy is still unclear.
CoinSwitch reported that the new round of funding included new investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures, and existing investors Paradigm and Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Tiger Global.
According to Chainalysis (a blockchain data platform), India’s digital currency market has grown to $923 million in April 2020 and $6.6 billion by May 2021.
CoinSwitch competes against cryptocurrency platforms like WazirX or CoinDCX in India. The country has more than 10 million users and a monthly active user base of seven million.
It was also claimed to be the largest cryptocurrency asset platform in the country. Reuters couldn’t independently verify this claim.
CoinSwitch stated that it will use the funds for 50 million Indians to join its platform and launch new products.
CoinSwitch was founded in 2017 and is based in Bengaluru. It serves as a global aggregator for crypto exchanges. It began operations in India in June 2017.
Andreessen Horowitz made this first investment in India. In June, the firm launched a $2.2 billion fund to invest in more crypto networks.
India was supposed to submit a bill to Parliament by March of this year, proposing a ban on cryptocurrency trading and holding them unlawful. However, the bill was not presented to Parliament.
Local media reported that the government wanted to tax cryptocurrency transactions and the ecosystem within the country.
